Re: [TCML] Re: Toroid

["Carl Noggle" <cn@xxxxx>]

My guess is that you will see MUCH better performance with the shop vac.  I 
have a vacuum cleaner motor on mine, and if it isn't on, there ain't nothin. 
You want that gap to have lots of hard, blue-white sparks and a lot of 
obnoxious noise.  My experience is that you can't have too high an air 
velocity, but it has to be above a certain point.  A vac should give you 
enough velocity.  A good choice for electrodes is brass acorn nuts from the 
hardware store.  polish them a bit with fine steel wool.  You want nuts that 
are of a radius roughly equal to the gap spacing.  Too big a radius may 
impede the airflow due to Reynolds' number problems.   Too small a radius 
and the gap will go into corona before it fires properly.

---Carl





-----Original Message----- 
From: Christian Hill
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2012 3:59 PM
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
Subject: Re: [TCML] Re: Toroid

Hello. It is a static spark gap that was (probably poorly) quenched by a
computer case fan but is now unquenched. The fan burnt up the other day. I
can easily set up the shop vac to quench the gap. I would imagine that
changes in quenching will require changes in tuning, correct? I noticed a
reduction in arc length when the gap was quenched by the shop vac versus
when it was unquenched. The new toroid is 29" in total diameter with a 4"
ring. Aluminum dryer duct only seems to come in the 4" variety. Where can I
get some 6" diameter or larger flexible tubing? Thank you.
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