Re: Spark gap metals

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Steve Cook" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Most heatsinks are Al, not a good move (a) the melting point  for Al is
660C, for Cu  1083C, for W 3370C, (b) the chemical reactivity of Al is very
high, you would at best be left with a pile of oxide.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2005 10:17 PM
Subject: Spark gap metals


> Original poster: "Steven Steele" <sbsteele@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Why are ya'll so concerned about the metal your spark gaps are made of?
> As long as your the metal has enough surface area( to radiate heat) and
you
> keep blowig air on it(like with a muffin man... I mean fan), it won't melt
> and it would be fine.
> You could even make a fine spark gap by replacing the copper pipes or
> tungsten rods with old heat sinks from scrap computers.Besides, isn't
> tungsten expensive?
> Trust me, I may be new at this, but I can tell you that fan cooled heat
> sinks or at least copper pipe(the longer the better) will do just as good,
> if not better, than tungsten rods.
> Also, the tungsten rods have less surface area than a copper pipe and
> therefore more likely to get really hot, and even though tungsten cand
> stand more heat, it doesn't need to as long as you cool it right. Tungsten
> rods are just a waste of money and tungsten.
>
>                     Steven Steele
>
>