Re: Useing silicone encapsulants for HV

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

At 11:46 AM 4/2/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>Original poster: "Mike Harrison by way of Terry Fritz 
><teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <mike-at-whitewing.co.uk>
>
>I'm planning my next Marx generator, and am thinking of using 2-part clear 
>silicone encapsulant to
>insulate much of it to avoid corona loss.
>The plan is to use  folded 3mm thick actrylic section as the main upright, 
>with two 'V' sections,
>which will be filled with encapsulant,forming a triangular potted section.
>This will cover the charge resistor chain and the ends of the caps.
>
>Anyone have any good/bad experience with this stuff ?
>Any pointers to UK suppliers would be appreciated - the only one I can 
>find at the moment is RS, and
>their price is UKP30 (~US$50) for 450g, which seems rather a lot....
>
>I'm assuming silicone is th etype to go for, as I want it reasonably 
>clear, and flexible enough to
>avoid cracking.


That's not an unusual price for water clear two part silicone.  I think I 
paid ( a few years back) on the order of $30 for a "1 pint kit" (actually a 
pint each of part A and Part B, to be mixed 1:1) at my local plastics/foam 
dealer (Sil-Foam).  The stuff seems cheap when you buy it in little 4 oz 
tubes for caulking.