Re: Terry - "Improved" propeller gap design

["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 11:35 AM 1/27/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>Original poster: "Scott Hanson by way of Terry Fritz 
><teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <huil888-at-surfside-dot-net>
>
>At least the "propeller gap" safety debate steered the list away from the 
>"laser pointer killed my coil" thread ......

<grin> but, you know that the rotation of the magnetic field in the gap rod 
leads to a distortion of the space time continuum and more efficent 
extraction of the zero-point energy for an over-unity tesla coil system, 
much as the rotating Kerr solution allows travel through the event horizon 
in contrast to the static Schwartzschild solution.</grin>


>Seriously, I had come up with a design improvement similar to your 
>suggestion of using a split shaft-collar to secure the tungsten rod. 
>Instead of using a shaft collar captured in a slot in the hub, why not 
>just make the hub itself have the split-collar clamp built in?

I like the idea of silver soldering a collar on the rod.  Now you've got a 
physical bump or lip to rest against a retention device that's loaded in 
shear(safety wire, set screw, whathaveyou) rather than relying on friction.

Silver soldering is something that doesn't require extreme skill or 
expensive tools.  Everything is available at the hardware store.  Those 
little butane micro torches are hot enough to melt the solder for something 
small like this.  I haven't tried it, but a regular propane torch might be 
hot enough, although the typical flame is designed for large total heat 
over a large area at lower temperatures for soft soldering copper pipe. 
Certainly, one of those oxy-mapp rigs would do it.

I don't know that I'd trust soft solder, if it even sticks to tungsten.


Another approach would be to use a collet type gripper on the rod. Thread 
the collet into a tapped hole in the hub.  Yes, it's a frictional grip on 
the rod, which I'm not too keen on, but the surface area is MUCH larger 
than just a setscrew, and the loads are balanced around the rod so 
vibration is less likely to make it come loose.  The collet is also a 
spring loaded grip, so that if there is vibration, it doesnt' get looser 
(assuming the collet clamping nut is held so it can't turn.. but the loads 
are less on that)  1/8" collets are readily available, or one could 
probably modify a very small compression fitting, although they don't have 
the taper one really needs.