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Re: Toroid performance



Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 1/7/01 1:14:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes:

> Question about toroid smoothness:
>   
>  I would like to learn of the experiences of those who have replaced a dryer
>  duct or corregated drain pipe toroid with a professional quality smooth,
>  polished metal toroid fo the same size and capacitance. 
> does
>  this ionized air layer help smooth out the roughness of aluminum dryer 
duct 
> or
>  foil covered toroids so they perform about as well as the beautiful spun
>  toroids?
>   
>  The bottom line question is, outside of the wonderful eye appeal of a well 
> made
>  spun metal toroid, does it really perform much better electrically than the
>  typical home made aluminum tape covered ones?
>   
>  Thanks,
>  --Steve

Steve, all,

A lot depends on the break rate.  At a low (120 bps) break rate, a
smooth toroid makes more of a difference.  At 120 bps, if the toroid
is not smooth, the sparks tend to want to form at every sharp point,
or at least at some of them.  Thus, at 120 bps, a much larger toroid
is needed to get the same results as a smaller smooth one.  I used
to use a 5" by 20" dryer duct toroid on my coil, but had a hard time
getting just one streamer to form, but the sparks did reach 42".
When I installed a 4" by 13" smooth toroid, the sparks were still
42", and I was able to obtain just one streamer (for longest spark
output).  I figure that a smooth toroid can be 50% smaller than
a corregated one at 120 bps.  I did not try the ones covered with
aluminum tape.

Higher bps does a better job of causing the streamers to "coalesce"
into just one streamer, thus the surface doesn't have to be as smooth.
But 120 bps operation is more efficient in an optimized design.

John Freau