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RE: My first ARSG, or a Dangerous Design? and SAFETY



Original poster: "Mccauley, Daniel H by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <daniel.h.mccauley-at-lmco-dot-com>


Dan, the construction quality and attention to detail in your rotary gap is
apparent from your photos. Unfortunately, the basic design is severely
flawed. If you actually intend to power this rotor up, PLEASE equip it with
a multi-layer safety shield/enclosure of Lexan,  3/4" plywood, or steel
pipe, etc that can stop the rod when it separates from the hub.
Additionally, I'd orient the gap vertically, and stay out of the plane of
the rotor when its operating.

As for others contemplating the construction of this type of gap, I'd
emphatically urge "DON'T DO IT". The risks are just too high.


Scott,

Agreed.  This is a very dangerous design.  I do plan on fully enclosing this
in a safety enclosure.
And I would not recommend this gap to anyone that doesn't use a safety
enclosure for it.
However, there are just as many (if not more dangerous) risks in general
tesla coiling itself.
There has been a recent trend (in my opinion) of many individuals jumping
right into tesla coiling
and buying a pole transformer to start off with.  In my opinion, there
nothing more dangerous in tesla
coiling than the output of one of these beasts.

There is always talk about the safety hazards with tesla coils (and for the
time being this ARSG design), but
I have almost never seen anyone wearing even eye protection.  Sure, people
will wear hearing protection, but I am
still puzzled why many don't wear safety glasses?  Are the eyes not that
important compared to hearing?

Figure you have rotary spark gaps which during mechanical failure can be
extremly hazardous to the eyes, high power
transformers, high voltage bushings (very prone to explosion), and
capacitors (very prone to explosion).

So again, I do agree this design is dangerous and that is why its going in a
safety enclosure, but I think we should
start with personal safety protection before we worry about the equipment.
Run safety chains around your dangerous high voltage equipment, make sure
all guests wear both hearing and eye protection, etc...

One particular recent event which I attended this summer involved a high
voltage / huge capacitor bank can crusher and
wire exploding device.  I absolutely CRINGE when I look back at the video to
see a huge group of people surrounding this thing with no eye protection and
no safety barriers.  And I have on video a young teenager walking past the
huge capacitor
bank which was fully charged (LETHAL) not having a clue of how close to
death he was.  The person who holds this event
(whose name I won't mention) I know has the greatest respect for the dangers
of tesla coils and he does stress safety at his
events.  However, when there are a lot of people and lots of excitement
occuring, this can be difficult to enforce.  In hindsight, I probably would
have put up a large safety barrier chain and kept people a lot farther away
from this thing.




Dan, the construction quality and attention to detail in your rotary gap is
apparent from your photos. Unfortunately, the basic design is severely
flawed. If you actually intend to power this rotor up, PLEASE equip it with
a multi-layer safety shield/enclosure of Lexan,  3/4" plywood, or steel
pipe, etc that can stop the rod when it separates from the hub.
Additionally, I'd orient the gap vertically, and stay out of the plane of
the rotor when its operating.

As for others contemplating the construction of this type of gap, I'd
emphatically urge "DON'T DO IT". The risks are just too high.

Regards,
Scott Hanson





----- Original Message ----- type
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 7:50 PM
Subject: My first ARSG - Tribute to Terry Blake !


  > Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com>
  >
  > I just finished my first ARSG and to my knowledge, I think I am the first
to
  > follow in the footsteps of Terry Blake's Propeller-Rotor design.
  > Thanks to Terry Blake's ingeniusness, we individuals who lack the
machining
  > equipment to make a precision balanced rotor can now have a
  > top quality rotary spark gap.
  >
  > Here is a picture of my ARSG:
  >
  > http://www.spacecatlighting-dot-com/images/arsg01.jpg
  >
  > Here is the complete webpage:
  >
  > http://www.spacecatlighting-dot-com/teslacoil9.htm
  >
  > And here you can see the genius himself at work creating a wide variety
of
  > different Propellar-Rotor sparkgap designs:
  >
  > http://www.tb3-dot-com/tesla/sparkgaps/index.html
  >
  > Thanks again Terry for the help!!!  Lets hope it works as good as it
looks!
  > Better wear those safety glasses!
  >
  > Dan
  >
  >
  > ---
  > [This E-mail scanned for viruses by SURFSIDE INTERNET]
  >
  >

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