Re: Toroid Support

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Parpp807-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 8/19/02 9:33:09 AM Central Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes:

> a heavy duty piece of 8-inch flexduc

Hi Ted,

I don't know if you are referring to the flex duct sold by McMaster-Carr. 
This is the 
ducting that is thick-walled and one continuous piece--no joints to tear 
apart.
I have used it with some luck. A 2.5 foot length stretches to 30 feet. The 
idea is to stretch it out far beyond the desired circumference, wrestle it 
into a large "near circle" and join the 
pre-finished ends with a suitable insert. After joining the ends, I then push 
and work the ducting back into the smaller diameter that approaches the 
finished size.

Yeah, pie pans or pizza pans are good, but they are too small for the larger 
toroids.
So I bot some sheet aluminum and cut circles of a diameter at least two 
inches larger than the inner diameter of the toroid. Make a rigid wheel as 
tho the toroid is a large tire.
I used Delrin tubing and tapped the hole for 1/4 - 20 bolts. The tubing holds 
the wheel together. Place the tubes around a circle that brings the tubes in 
contact with the inner
wall of the toroid.
Make 1/2 of the wheel and place the toroid duct over the Delrin tubing which 
is now inside the inner diameter of the toroid. Bolt on the top sheet of Al 
and tighten the whole contraption together. If you do it right-- that was 
hard for me and took some trial by error--
you will get a tight wheel with the properly sized toroid tire.

A picture would help.  :-))

Happy day,
Ralph Zekelman