[TCML] SRSG "sputter"

[Joe Mastroianni <joe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,
Ok, while I'm awaiting my parts from McMaster Carr to do my next version of the SRSG, and propeller gap, I'm still fiddling with this little 4" wheel I have.

What I'm noticing is that at below  1/2 voltage on the variac, the gap is happily firing, and things are calm and sparky.  When I go to about 2/3 power, I start getting a sharp crackling from the area of the gap itself.  Sometimes the safety gap on the SRSG fires, and sometimes it doesn't - but if I go even higher on the voltage, my Terry Filter safety gap goes off so I shut down.  Sometimes, the none of the gaps fire and I get a quick arc in the vicinity of the outer turns of the primary.

For grins I turned on the fan again I had blowing on the gap, and that seems to have no effect, positively or negatively.   I tried adjusting the gap itself between the rotating rods and the stationary rods, and smaller gap seems to be better than larger gap, but I still get the "sputtering".

I have tried adjusting the dwell with the Freau adjuster, but that just pretty much lengthens or grows the signal intensity, and as the voltage gets up there, the sputtering starts again.

Definitely cannot run at full power.  

I have tried tightening down on the collars that hold fast the rotating electrodes by squeezing them with a vice grip to assure contact with the copper ring on the back and then tightening the set screws, but there seems to be no effect there.

I'm wondering if I could have a "timing" issue in that the electrodes may not be precisely 90 degrees apart - perhaps a fraction or a degree off, depending.  My protractor method could have been imprecise.

ANy thoughts would be appreciated.  Or I wonder if my tuning of the contact to the primary is still off by some amount of a full turn....

Cheers,
Joe_______________________________________________
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