Re: faraday cage

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Peter Terren" <pterren@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

I have an 8 foot cube Faraday cage that I used for a public display 
at a Uni open day. It packs down into 8x4 sections and has a "door" 
for access. Assembly is a tedious affair. Neverthe less it was being 
run within 30m of a new multi-million dollar Cray computer so it had 
to be electrically quiet.
The RF ground is the cage but you should also ground this to the 
mains as well. I forgot and got a bit of stray current between the 
cage and mains earth while running it.
Faraday cages of this type are not that good at stopping RF. Even a 
$20,000 one for a Tesla coil at the science museum didn't stop mobile 
phones for example. Nevertheless, fluoro lights wont light up outside the cage.
Mesh size is not critical in most environments. I use one that has 6 
inch mesh size and one that uses small mesh of perhaps 2 inches.
http://tesladownunder.com/Tesla_School_3.JPG
http://tesladownunder.com/TeslaPhysics110mACageOn.jpg

Peter

> > Original poster: "Drake Schutt" <drake89@xxxxxxxxx>
.....  Ive been searching through
> > the list archive for a little while and what Im wonder about now is 
> > faraday cages.  If i build a form out of small pvc pipe and cover 
> > it with metal screen or chicken wire, and somehow attach a fat 
> > ground connection to it will it work?  Can i ground it to the same 
> > rf ground as the seconday?  How big can the mesh of the cage 
> > be?  (for a smallish 12/30 nst powered coil)
......

> > -Drake