One thing Scot, your coil created some long sparks in it's life time before your retired the coil, and it did this with a higher than normal voltage and small electrodes (for the power). Seemed to work out ok (overall). I do wonder if the large supply (POWER!) and small resonant cap size resulted in a very quick charge and a very high voltage at the caps in comparison to the bps. That may better explain why the ring arcing occurred (assuming it wasn't being drawn as in my case). My ring turned into a very cool ring of sparks when this occurred, and if that wasn't observed, then maybe it is as you explained, just arcing between electrodes.
Something else noted about your disc: The electrodes to flat surface are almost needle point (radius versus distance). So the voltage required to arc the distance does need to actually be all that high to do so. The more I contemplate this particular rotary and realizing the very high voltages used and resonant charging occurring, the more I see the possibility that it was arcing to the copper ring, even a 2.5" distance.
Take care, Bart bunnykiller wrote:
Hey Bart...Even tho the secondary was scavenged for the wire, I went ahead and did the NO-NO test on the primary circuit. ( yes I ran the coil without the secondary in place) I ramped the variac up to 80% and hit the button for the relay to engage. The first 2 times resulted in the safety gap firing only. The 3rd and 4th time resulted in an arc going directly to the copper ring for about a second or less than the safety gap took over. I had moved the rotory electrodes away from the stationary electrodes to make sure that they wouldnt be a part of the equasion. BTW, the safety gap was several times louder than what normally occurs with the secondary in place.... on very rare and I mean rare ( happened twice in 9 years) the safety gap would fire and then become like a small jacobs ladder arc for about a second, the arc would quench and then go back to the popping arcs.Scot D bartb wrote:Hi Scot, I'll add my 2 cents.I built a rotary once comprised of small electrodes (3/16"D) protruding out about 1.5". The electrodes were screwed into one side of the disc. The disc was metal. The problem I had is that when the voltage went high enough, the arc would travel down the electrode and across the wheel to the other electrode (or attempt to). This was "drawing the arc" mechanically from one electrode towards the next. When I realized what was occurring, I decided to use an insulated disc (no copper ring) and let the arc pass through the electrode placing my stationary electrodes on each side of the disc rather than on the same side. I think my problem was mainly that quenching was poor. I suspect quenching is also part of your problem here, but not sure.Are you able to arc the distance if the rotary is not spinning and the rotary electrodes are positioned equal distance away from the stationary electrodes? Giving that a quick test may help determine if you are truly arcing the distance or if your drawing the arc across.When running, it may quench before it reaches the next electrode in which case may appear like a static gap. I think if this is the case, the next electrode may not fire and then the following electrode has a very high voltage which conducts, this time drawing the arc all the way to the next electrode. And then we start over again. Sort of a very erratic running situation at that point.Throwing some food for thought out there. Take care, Bart_______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
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