New sync gap & and salad bowl joining

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

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

In a message dated 12/30/00 9:47:12 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

> Next I'll install my new sync gap, and see how it performs.  I don't
>  really expect to see any difference in spark length, since rotary
>  gaps are generally not very critical, especially at low powers.
>  
>           http://hometown.aol-dot-com/futuret/page3.html

Chuck, All,

Well I installed the new sync gap, and it works fine.  As expected
I don't really see much difference in spark length.  It's possible that
the sparks are slightly longer... hard to tell.  I still have to do more
tests.  The copper electrodes became discolored so far where they
fire, but there is no pitting.  My gap currents are very low, because
I'm using 42kV peak in the tank circuit, with just 0.0035uF.  
I rotated the rotor hub on the motor shaft until I obtained a good
range for the phase shifter variac.  Best sparks occur between
phase variac 40 and 55 on the dial.

To Chuck Cook about the salad bowl issue, I like the idea that
MT suggested of gluing wood discs into each bowl, and then
epoxying them together.  The wood discs will tend to keep the
bowls very round, so they'll line up well.  If one bowl is larger, 
then some metal can be filed away at the edge of the larger bowl
until it's smaller, and they match in size.

John Freau