Good example of quenching

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Original poster: "Harold Weiss by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <hweiss-at-new.rr-dot-com>

Hello all,

In September, I got a good lesson in the importance of good quenching.  On 
my rotory gap, the electrode supports were a little too close to the 
gap.  The spark would hit the phenolic support causing it to track.  It 
finally burst into flame, taking a 3' streamer down to about 3-6".  The 
action in the gap looked similar to a Jacob's ladder with the flaming arcs 
created.  At the time, I did not have the gap timed right.  Since the 
rebuild the gap timing seems to have fallen into place on it's own.  I 
normaly set the position by hand before I start the sync gap, but it 
sometimes falls out of sync during a run.  One night was really bad.  It 
kept falling out of sync.  I checked line frequency, and found it varying 
between 58 and 64Hz.  The frequency would change rhythmically, from high to 
low every two seconds.  Looks like the guys at the power plant had a 
hunting generator.  Add to that the primary interferance, NO WONDER.

David E Weiss