Re: Machining / Lathe questions

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Peter Komen by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <pkomen-at-zianet-dot-com>

In my experience, brass  balls or drawer pulls make lousy spark gaps.  May
be OK for a safety gap that doesn't fire much but for the primary spark gap,
it erodes and the voltage goes down as deposits build up.  Not really enough
time to tune before it started power arcing.  Others may have different
experience.

Regards,

Pete Komen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 9:07 PM
Subject: Re: Machining / Lathe questions


 > Original poster: "S & J Young by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<youngs-at-konnections-dot-net>
 >
 > Captain,
 >
 > If your steel spheres are balls from large bearings, you will have a heck
of
 > a time drilling holes in them because they are at least as hard as most
 > drill bits.  You should first anneal them by heating them
 > to red-hot temperatures and slowly cooling them.  Might be better to just
 > buy some brass spheres from McMaster Carr.
 >
 > Harbor Freight has cheap lathes, but the quality is probably low.  Better
to
 > shop around for a used higher quality one, but be sure the bearings are
 > still tight.
 > --Steve