Original poster: Tom Perigrin <tip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> At 08:12 AM 9/13/2006, you wrote:
Original poster: Yurtle Turtle <yurtle_t@xxxxxxxxx> Years ago, I built a drier duct toroid, and covered it with drywall mud. I got it real smooth, then painted it with a metallic paint. I don't remmeber which kind of paint I used, but it ended up looking more like a crackle tube than a tesla coil. The arcs never really left the toroid, but rather ate away the paint, much the way a CD on a tesla coil does.
Drywall mud is heavy. Try using expanding foam, and then cuting and sanding it smooth. Much lighter. I covered it over with aluminum foil to get a large, fairly light toroid.
One way to deal with the arc-etching would be to use the first layer of conductive paint as a base for a thicker layer of electroplated layer of metal - copper, chromium, etc. I never tried that idea myself because I didn't know of a good source of affordable conductive paint. I've seen people refer to one here - who sells it, and what does it cost (both per unit volume and per square area covered)?