Hi Peter,I'd bet that it was the ozone that did it, since ozone rapidly attacks rubber. I had some large rubber bands in the same room with my coil - within a few weeks they lost flexibility and strength, falling into pieces when stretched. And, many years ago I had to prematurely replace a set of car tires, not from excessive wear, but because they were forming large networks of cracks on all the sidewalls. The vehicle was kept in the garage, adjacent to the room containing the coil. Steel tools kept in the same room developed a fine rusty patina, and blue-lined paper was bleached white after about a year in the same room. Ozone is pretty wicked stuff... :^)
You're fighting a materials problem. Unless you're able to provide a gas-tight coating over the inner tube, the ozone will get to it, eventually degrading and destroying it. You may be able to prevent this by wrapping layers of aluminum tape all around the tube, hopefully forming an impermeable barrier. This must also include the valve stem.
Bert Peter Terren wrote:
I have a 9x33 inch truck inner tube as the basis for my upper toroid on my 18 inch coil. My first effort was with it providing the support for a chicken wire surround. After my first go it puctured full of many holes despite the wire covering.http://tesladownunder.com/Tesla_coil_18inch.htm#ToroidSince then I covered it with Aluminium adhesive backed tape it has worked fine in the last 6 months. Today on a hot day, however it blew with a split along a fine gap between two adjacent windings of tape where the rubber was bare. I could separate the spilt easily with my fingers and the rubber appears to be considerably weakened. It might have been a simple blowout as well but the hole was only tiny when I reinflated it initially. Question. Is this due to sparking or ozone or adhesive effect? How do I get around it. I hope to do a full autopsy soon to look at the strength of the fully covered area where only adhesive should be a factor.Peter _______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
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