Re: Rotary gap safety - RE: spark gap muffler?

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

Original poster: "Christopher Boden by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>

> > >Hi Terry, Chris, et al!
> > >
> > >Here is a quick table of how fast things are thrown from the edge of a 
>disk
> > >running at 3600 RPM. As you can see, things get real nasty, real quick.
> > >Diam    Tangential
> > >(in.)        velocity (mph)
> > >4.00 42.8
> > >5.00 53.5
> > >6.00 64.3
> > >7.00 75.0
> > >8.00 85.7
> > >9.00 96.4
> > >10.00 107.1
> > >11.00 117.8
> > >12.00 128.5
> > >
> > >Matt D.
> >
> > Great chart Matt, but if we evaluate 128 mph, it is only about 1/7
> > the speed of a normal bullet, and my 30-30 lead bullet weighs close
> > to what a 3/8" X 1" tungsten electrode would. :)
> > Steel plate isn't out of the question though, very compact, just
> > expensive, I'd probably use wood if I had a need to armor.
> > I agree that steel is a good idea for a publicly exposed unit!
>
>
>
>I agree! When dealing with the public, it only takes one "Oh S _ _ _ !" to
>wipe out a lot of accumulated "Bravos!"

Fortunately, with our demonstartions, any mistakes (frying a piece of gear, 
etc) usually look like part of the demo. By the time a given piece of gear 
makes it to the demo it has been tested a couple hundred times in the shop. 
We try to push it as much as we dare in the lab, but only 80% of capacity in 
a demo, that way we're less likely to smoke something in public.

It took us about a year to learn how to do decent demos though. Our early 
Tesla Coil demos were of varyable length and always ended when something 
failed. We literally would hope to make it at least about 10 minutes of 
total run time and the demo went until the gap melted, or the caps 
punctured, etc...

It's so nice to be ahead of the curve now, lol



True, the velocity is much less than
>a 30-30 bullet,

ahhh but the mass is far more :) Our rotor is spinning at 1800, with 12 
electrodes made from a 1.5" long .5" brass bolt. These things are very 
heavy. They're drilled out for 3/32" tungsten electrodes.


but as mothers all over the world have said about BB guns,
>"You'll put your eye out with that"
>
>Matt D.
>Q. Do parachutes fail to open very often?
>A No, just once.

duck

Skydivers make practice jumps, why practice something you can only do wrong 
once?








Christopher A. Boden Geek#1
President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
The Geek Group
www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!


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