I wonder then if a propeller gap, might be considered a "lower level" rotary. I mean I over complicated the heck out of mine, but if I went bare bones, it would probably only take a few hours to build, the most difficult part being the insulating central rotor. Provided the tooling to was available of course.
So let's put central rotor of propeller gap, on the list too :)
John "Jay" Howson IV
Sent from a tiny phone with a tiny keyboard.
----- Reply message -----
From: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxx>
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [TCML] Huge opportunity for new and veteran coilers
Date: Sun, Feb 23, 2014 7:30 am
Actually, for the more "veteran" SG coilers, I guess one of the bigger challenges is
the design and construction of a well balanced RSG disc along with equadistant
and symmetrical placement of the flying electrodes. Once you get pretty far into
this hobby, sourcing of materials like tungsten roundstock, DC motors and garolite
is really no longer that much of an issue. It's just a matter of how much you are willing
or able to spend. The hard part to me is proper machining of the RSG components
when one has no personal access to professional machining equipment, because believe
me, you are not going to be able to come up with a satisfactory RSG design with
only a handheld drill, a table saw, a saws-all and a bench grinder at your disposal!
And, as you have mentioned, professional custom design of an RSG is quite pricey.
IIRC, Bill Wysock was charging $1350 for the one he had on his website!
http://www.teslatechnologyresearch.com/rotary_spark_gap.htm
David Rieben
From: Andrew Robinson <arobinson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 3:10 PM
Subject: [TCML] Huge opportunity for new and veteran coilers
ALL MEMBERS: Please take a moment to read this as it may help you even if you don't realize it yet.
Howdy all,
Just wanted to share some information with you and get a little feedback. I wanted to pose a question to everyone out on the list that may end up helping a lot of you in the near future. The more people I can get to respond, the more helpful it will be. First though, lets get a little background information...
Many many years ago when I first got into coiling, I was VERY young and lacking a lot of skills required to really push forward into the modern world of coiling. As a result, today I feel I can really relate to some of you newer guys trying to get into the hobby, but not really knowing where to start, who to call, where to buy materials, etc. There are a lot of ways to do things in the conventional tesla realm (as well as the solid state arena). Some have slowly become the "tesla industry standard" way of doing things, others are considered learning steps for newcomers. Unfortunately, some of these learning steps can be deadly. I think a great example (one of many) is using Arcylic as a rotary gap material. Don't lie, you know some of you out there have done it. Some probably never ran into problems. Others may have experienced rather exciting yet terrifying failures. Hopefully none were hurt. This is just one of the many examples of the learning steps
involved in build coils.
One thing that I feel is really key to this hobby is growth. Sure there are some of you out there who build one coil and then move onto something else and that's fine, however, if I had to guess, several of you if not most of you out there are hooked into coiling and will most likely progress through several coils, revisions, etc. That part is key! Most of us on here are here to stay and don't want to be spoon fed. We want to let the true engineer inside shine through. Come up with our own concepts and turn them into practical creations. The problem here, is sometimes without the experience or knowledge, this can be difficult at first. I've been trying to think of a way I can help bridge this gap. A way I can help and give back to the community, but in a way that is not spoon feeding the newcomer. So what is my original question to all of you?
*Let me make it clear first that I am not gaining anything from this*
If I was to offer any tesla coil part you could possibly imagine, precision machined out of almost any material, what would you want to be?
In other words, what as a newcomer do you find to be the most difficult mechanical obstacle to overcome when building your coil? Garolite rotary gap discs? Custom tungsten electrodes? How about standoff insulators, or primary coil supports? You name it. I'd like to get this feedback from everyone as I am considering offering these parts and services to you all at a fraction of the normal cost. This was always the biggest challenge for me when I first started. I knew what I needed. I could get all the information I wanted from this wonderful list, but I never knew how, or could afford to have various parts professionally machined, let alone multiple revisions.
Sure this sounds like a sell, but don't think of it like that. This is simply my way of giving back to the community and again, ***I will not be getting anything out of this* other than the satisfaction that I get from returning the favor that others did for me when I was first starting. Any cost to you is simply to cover the CNC machine shop that I work for that will be doing the manufacturing. So how is this not spoon feeding? The idea here is to help encourage growth using safe processes and materials and provide the necessary equipment that would be otherwise out of reach. Now once I get some feedback from everyone we can determine what if anything you would like to see. We will probably take everyone's suggestions and create a variety of parts of different sizes. These parts will then be available to you to purchase directly from the machine shop or through me if you prefer. This will allow you guys to for the first time be able to pickup individual
pieces to build out what ever coil you have pictured. I like to think of us as the Home Depot of Tesla coil parts. Getting back to one of my original points though, we're very hesitant to sell entire kits. You can buy Tesla kits on eBay. That's boring... Be creative! That's what this hobby is all about! Continue to do what we all do best. Come up with new and incredible coil designs, but in a pinch, let us help you fill in some of the gaps.
Send me parts you would like to see. We are also considering allowing you guys to submit custom parts for fabrication. Hopefully we will start offering some basic parts such as rotary gap parts here in the next few weeks. Some examples, submit suggestions, get more information, etc here:
http://www.teslamad.com/mecha.html
Send me a message off list: arobinson(at)teslamad(dot)com
or visit me at http://www.teslamad.com/
You can visit the machine shop at http://www.mechainc.com/ or visit the shops store at http://www.mechainc.com/store/
Thanks guys for your time and thanks to the list mods for all you do!
Cheers,
Andrew
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