Re: safety gap setup

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Jon Danniken" <danniken@xxxxxxxxxxx>

If it were me, I would close the main gap down to a tenth of an inch and
fire up the coil in short bursts for testing purposes.  You won't get as
much output as you normally would, but you will reduce the likelihood of
frying your NST.

As for your safety gap, rounded elecrodes are better, as they present a more
uniform field.  Mine is made from the rounded ends of carriage bolts.

Jon


> Original poster: mileswaldron@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Terry,
>
> I have ordered the parts from DigiKey for a 15KV Terry Filter. I will
> probably be too excited to wait for the parts to get here before I
> start up my new coil. I am either going to use a vacuum gap, an async
> rotary, or a fan cooled multigap. That is my current quandry, with
> all the different motors and fittings and things all laying around, I
> am waiting for something to call out to me. However, I want to at
> least put a safety gap onto the circuit before I power it up. At 15KV
> I understand that I need to keep my max spark gap < 1/4 of an inch.
> Is this a good rule of thumb? Also, how do I adjust the distance for
> each leg of the safety gap for best protection? I have a pair of
> adjustable angle brackets with steel spheres (well - steel sphere
> like cabinet doorknobs) that I can use. Would a sharp point be
> better? How close together should the safety gap be?