Yurtle Turtle wrote:
More telling than machining is welding. While machining metal can get it hot, welding is more like what it will experience in a spark gap. 316L SS can be welded with no problems from fumes. Adam
the issue with SS isn't it's melting point or stuff like that.. It's the terrible thermal conductivity. SS spark gap electrodes greatly suffer from the "hot spot" problem.. a small area gets hot and then all the sparks tend to start there (because of thermionic emission) making it even hotter.
Copper conducts the heat away from the cathode spot, so the sparks tend to move around on the electrode surface, and be more consistent.
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