RE: Tungsten Carbide

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

Original poster: "sundog by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <sundog-at-timeship-dot-net>

Hi all, Dave,


Yep, used tungsten carbide rods with great success in TC's.  conductivity is
good, wear is excellent and it is relatively easy to work with once you have
the knack for it.  The individual bits I have used, but securing them was a
bit of a pain.  I recommend you have them silver-soldered to your electrodes
if you can't secure them with setscrews.  Tungsten carbide rod is reasonably
cheap from McMastercarr.

 If you're using the small round cutters with the hole in the middle, you
can make a *nice* static gap by mounting them with small screws.

Be creative (safely)!
												Shad


-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 7:07 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Tungsten Carbide


Original poster: "David Huffman by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<huffman-at-fnal.gov>

I recently received some cutting bits for a large machine. The person I got
them from told me they were tungsten carbide. I was hoping to use them for a
spark gap but I think they may be some other material. The 'carbide' bits
I've
seen in the past were very shiny metallic pieces. These cutters are dull
almost
carbon like in appearance. The guy gave me 9 pieces total. Four of them are
plated a gold color and measure conductive with an Ohm meter. The other five
have the dull carbon look and vary in resistance. They are extremely hard
and
heavy, I can scratch a steel file with them. The problem as I see it will be
making an electrical connection to them. Anyone have some idea how to test
this
material? The pieces are disc shaped about 25mm in dia. by 7mm thick with a
tappered hole through the center.
As soon as time permits I will set them all in series to see if they work.

Dave Huffman