Re: spark gap spacing

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

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

Hi Shaun,

If you hook up the NST without anything else but the safety gap connected
to the output, the NST will automatically run right at it's rated voltage.
You can then set the safety gap to where it just does not fire and the
voltage setting will be just right.

Any strong metal is fine for the safety gap.  The above settings accounts
for odd shapes and sharp edges very well.

Cheers,

	Terry

At 11:24 PM 10/8/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello Again,
>
>I Have another question,
>
>Does anyone have more exact information to setup the gap distances on a 12Kv
>at 60mA neon sign powered tesla coil, I've seen the SGapVolt.jpg file on
>Terry's web page under misc and its kinda rough, but interesting.  Anyway,
>I'm looking for the safty gap distances to ground, and the main spark gap
>distance for a 2 gap (I hope 2 is enough) spark gap using 3/8 inch tungsten,
>flat surface, oh and the safty gaps are ~3/8 inch brass balls.
>
>I know I've seen the equation for  Kv/cm spark jump somewhere, but it
>doesn't include electrode shape, and I figure that there is lots of people
>out there using very similar hardware so I'm hoping I don't have to do it
>trail and error.  :-)
>
>BTW.  I was thinging of using Drill bits to gap my spark gaps,  does this
>work well??
>
>Thanx,   Shaun Epp
>