Static gap cleaning

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com>

Well, I just joined the long list of those who have had to clean their static
gaps.  This is after recently telling everyone that I have never had any
problems with them.  I am running a 3" coil at 15 kv 60ma using a RQ / TCBOR
static gap.  The coil would run fine at low and medium power levels but when
the variac was increased the last 10%, the coil was running erratically.  The
gaps would stop firing for a second or two then take off again.  I would think
that crap in the gaps would make it fire erratically at low power, but not so. 
I cleaned the gaps with fine sandpaper and steel wool.  It is not easy to get
in there to clean them.  After cleaning, everything works very well.  The gap
did make some nice fireworks when first fired up, burning up pieces of steel
wool that were still in there. 

Ed Sonderman