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I visited Gary Lau's Site & there he says that his single gap resulted in a drastic performance increase of 42" to 51". He replaced his RQ gap. In his single gap design, he also says that it pulls more current. How is this possible? Should I configure my single gap so that the air blows out of the pipes or should air be sucked in the pipes (as in G.Lau's site)? I presume that if air is sucked in, then there will be a lower conc. of air which will have a lower breakdown voltage. Won't this make the tank capacitor discharge more often and that too before it is fully charged?
Thanks for your advice!
William
: --Previous Message--
: hi bert!
: which is better to use in a 15/30 system as a static spark gap - copper
: electrodes or tungsten rods? how much does electrode geometry affect quench
: etc? (i am using a vacuum cleaner to force air). How much performance does
: a series static gap offer over a fixed one?
: thnx
: william
: :
: Hi William,
: Actually either metal will work fine as long as you have sufficient air
: flow to keep them cool. However, copper pipe electrodes combine excellent
: thermal conductivity with large surface area, copper pipe is much easier to
: find and work with than tungsten rod, and copper is considerably less
: expensive. Copper does tend to for a blackish colored oxide in the sparking
: area, so it requires periodic cleaning with sandpaper every now and then.
: The secret to good quenching is to use a number of smaller gaps (0.25"
: - 0.030") in series using electrodes that are comparatively large (for
: added surface area and thermal mass) and a source of cooling air flow. It
: is also possible to get reasonably good quenching with a properly designed
: single gap and LOTS of air (such as Gary Lau's Sucker Gap or Vortex Gap)
: See http://www.laushaus.com/tesla for how these are made.
: With a 15/30 there's really very little performance difference between the
: two gap styles as long as you provide adequate airflow. However, a single
: gap requires a virtual hurricane to get good quenching, and it's VERY
: noisy. It's simply easier to use a series of gaps with moderate air flow.
: At higher power levels it becomes more difficult to adequately quench with
: either style gap, and eventually it becomes time to build a rotary gap.
: Good luck and best regards,
: -- Bert --
:
:
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