New static gap & vacuum motor

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: New static gap & vacuum motor
From: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 11:29:00 -0600
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

Steve Date was kind enough to send me a vacuum motor the other day.  I had 
been planning to rebuild one of my RQ cylindrical gaps to use on my 6" coil 
powered by a 14.4 kv pole transformer running at about 7 kva.  The 
modification was planned to seal off the bottom, cut slots in the sides 
between the gaps and install the vacuum motor on the top.  Then I realized I 
only have 6 gaps each about .028" wide for a total gap width of about .170".  
I think this will severely limit the maximum voltage the caps (.05 ufd 
Condenser Products) can charge to and result in much less power in the 
primary than I have been running with my async rotary.  My question for the 
group is - how wide of a gap do you think I can use and not overvoltage my 
C.P. caps rated at 20 kv (in Tesla coil operation).  I found an old 
correspondence from C.P. where they state "the capacitor is designed for 
maximum of 34 kv peak, including safety".  W.I. Mason, the President, 
suggested at the time that I use a maximum of  3/8" to limit the voltage to 
31 kv max.

I would like some suggestions on this.  Should I go with his suggestion and 
design for 3/8" total gap?  Like 6 gaps of .0625"?

Thanks, Ed Sonderman