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Re: Can you have too much air through a SG? (fwd)





---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 15:30:51 -0500
From: Thomas McGahee <tom_mcgahee-at-sigmais-dot-com>
To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Cc: wwl-at-netcomuk.co.uk
Subject: Re: Can you have too much air through a SG?



----------
> From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: 'Tesla List' <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Subject: Can you have too much air through a SG?
> Date: Wednesday, February 11, 1998 10:09 PM
> 
> 
> ----------
> From:  Mike Harrison [SMTP:wwl-at-netcomuk.co.uk]
> Sent:  Wednesday, February 11, 1998 11:55 AM
> To:  tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
> Subject:  Can you have too much air through a SG?
> 
> I've just built a R.Quick style cylindrical gap for my first coil,
> using a 4" pipe and 22mm copper tubes, with a VERY powerful 9" EBM
> centrifugal fan I had lying around, boxed up to route the air through
> the PVC pipe. If I had a tennis ball handy, it'd probably float on the
> airflow - seriously windy! 
> Obviously you can never have too much cooling, but can excessive
> airflow impair gap performance? - I'll be initially running 7KV at
> about 30mA from a conventional (i.e. not neon) transformer , hopefully
> 9KV when I can get a microwave tranny to put in series. 
> Do I need to put a speed control on the fan?
>      ____                                                           ____
>    _/ L_/  Mike Harrison / White Wing Logic / wwl-at-netcomuk.co.uk  _/ L_/
>  _/ W_/  Hardware & Software design / PCB Design / Consultancy  _/ W_/
> /_W_/  Industrial / Computer Peripherals / Hazardous Area      /_W_/
> 

Mike,
Yes, you CAN have too much airflow. I use a variac to adjust the speed
of my vacuum motore, which is a universal type AC/DC motor. A less
expensive method is to provide an alternate path for SOME of the 
air. I use a flat box for my spark gaps, and have used a 2" diameter
hole that has a sliding 'door' that can be adjusted to allow air to
sneak out so that the pressure can be regulated. You should be able
to rig up something similar with ease.

BTW, at low airflow you get mostly cooling (always good), at moderate
to heavy airflow you will see the spark output of your coil increase,
and then at too heavy of an airflow the output will begin to drop
off a bit.

Hope this helps,
Fr. Tom McGahee