Re: wood RSG

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

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Greg,

I think it will work.  You would want to go for 1800 (1500) RPM as opposed
to the fast 3600 RPM gap speed.  You should also try to use the smallest
diameter you safely can which will reduce vibration and centrifugal forces
considerably.  You may have to play with little weights to balance it and
such.  Of course, you definitely want a shield around it incase it gives way.

Unless the humidity is very high were you are, the wood rotor should not be
a problem since the rotor conductors tend to operate near ground potential.
 One person even has a grounded metal rotor with zero insulation.

If you can true it on a lathe it should run perfectly.  Even if you cut it
out (like I do :-)) at 1800 RPM you can get away with a lot.

"I think" it will work fine.

Cheers,

	Terry
 

At 10:40 AM 12/29/2001 +1000, you wrote:
>I am having difficulty finding some cheap epoxy/fibreglass sheet to use 
>for a RSG. I was wondering if anyone has ever tried using well dried 
>and prepared plywood? While it isn't the best insulator, I would 
>imagine that a polyurethane coated disc of about 10-12" diameter would 
>probably insulate well enough. Another plus is that high grade plywood 
>can be very strong and is probably better at handling high temperatures 
>than most plastics. It is also cheap and easy to work with. You could 
>even impregnate the wood with polyurethane/acrylic/epoxy, etc using a 
>vacuum. What do you think? 
>
>Cheers,
>
>Greg Peters
>Department of Earth Sciences,
>University of Queensland, Australia
>Phone: 0402 841 677
>http://www.geocities-dot-com/gregjpeters
>
>
>