Re: air blast gap

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

Original poster: "BunnyKiller by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <bigfoo39-at-telocity-dot-com>

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Cydesho-at-aol-dot-com>
>
> I've been trying different variations of air blast gaps on my coil recently,
> and I've had a small problem. It seems that the faster the air is blasted
> into the gap, the more unreliable the gap is. After a few seconds of run time
> the gap will abruptly stop firing and I have to flip the power off and back
> on again to get it to start firing. Sometimes it wont stop firing at all, and
> sometimes is does it quite often. Is there any way to remedy this?
>                                         Justin

Hi Justin....

what power are you running ??  12KV 30mA or 30KV 600mA... it makes a
difference in
gap design
the physics involved in gap design is complex once you start thinking about
it...

reduce the air flow a bit ... be careful about using "alot" of air flow,
the arc
will extend to about 2" ( single gap strong air flow) and it will eat the
cap for
breakfast...

also ;)   do what I did ....  decide that just about everyone here has
experimented
with air blast gaps and that the best designs have been discovered and use
a proven
design and reduce the risk of blowing up the cap and coil :)

I also have spent many hours thinking and experimenting in hopes of finding
a new
and improved better, more efficient gap. I eventually came up with the SD gap (
effective, easy to adjust, easy to clean, but semi difficult to build)

besides, I like the idea of NOT having to turn on another piece of noisy
equipment
:)

the 3 best air blast gaps Ive seen so far are the RQ, Gary Lau's vacuum ( sorry
Gary if I misspelled ) gap, and the normal single gap in a small tube air
blast.

best multiple static no air blast  .. large RQ, SDgap, and Terry's triggered (
qualifies as multiple due to more than 2 electrodes :)  ) gap....


Scot D