Electrical Properties of Brass

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Original poster: "Jeremy Scott by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <supertux1-at-yahoo-dot-com>

Hi!

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with
building primaries out of brass instead of copper?
I want to use brass since I'm worried about copper
oxidizing over time.

I have a design in mind that is going to use
brass strips for all connections in the tank
circuit. (Including the primary)

The brass strips I have in mind are approximately
.016" thick by 2" wide.

 >From calculations I have done with JavaTC,
the tank current at gap conduction is going
to be approximately 800 Amps.

(15KV/120mA NST .03 uf LTR primary cap)
(154kHz resonant frequency)

I am concerned that the brass strips I've got
are too thin to handle this current load.
Unfortunately, anything thicker is tough to work
with and bend into the proper shapes I require.
(Doubling up the thin strips is an option but
I don't want to do it if i don't have to.)

On the otherhand, since the tank current will be
oscillating at RF frequencies, skin-effect tells me
that the thickness isn't as much of an issue as the
actual surface area.

I guess the real question is, how far does a charge
of 800A penetrate into brass at 154kHz ?