Re: Aluminum tape on toroids? What about the sticky side being nonconducting? Not a problem!

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Harold Weiss" <hweiss-at-new.rr-dot-com> 

Hi Scott,

I never had that problem.  I forget which brand aluminium tape I was using,
but it might be that the adhesive was conductive same as the copper stuff I
have.

David E Weiss

 > Original poster: "Scott Hanson" <huil888-at-surfside-dot-net>
 >
 > Harold -
 >
 > I have made a number of small toroids for desktop coils, using blow-molded
 > polyethylene "pallet cushions" as forms. When the self-adhesive aluminum
 > tape has been applied to the form, with adjacent strips overlapped by
about
 > 1/4" and the tape firmly burnished against the surface of the form,
adjacent
 > foil strips most definitely DO NOT make electrical contact with each
other.
 > This is easily demonstrated using an ohmmeter. My small toroids use 26
 > individual almond-shaped foil tape segments, and on two toroids checked no
 > two adjacent foils were in electrical contact.
 >
 > When the coil is operated at very low power levels, before there is any
 > actual streamer breakout, the toroid will be literally covered with
hundreds
 > of tiny sparks along the edges of the foil strips. As input power level is
 > increased, and streamer breakout begins, the small sparks at the foil
edges
 > disappear.
 >
 > Regards,
 > Scott Hanson
 >
 >
 >
 > ----- Original Message -----
 > From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 > To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 > Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 10:39 AM
 > Subject: Re: Aluminum tape on toroids? What about the sticky side being
 > nonconducting?
 >
 >
 >  > Original poster: "Harold Weiss" <hweiss-at-new.rr-dot-com>
 >  >
 >  > Jack,
 >  >
 >  > If you realy want to spend money, you can get the copper tape from 3M
that
 >  > has conductive adhesive.  The aluminium tape when smoothed over the
torrid
 >  > does make metal to metal contact on it's edges.  It may not be the
 > greatest
 >  > but it is good enough for government work.
 >  >
 >  > David E Weiss
 >  >
 >  >  > Original poster: Phlunktfysics101-at-aol-dot-com
 >  >  >
 >  >  > I see lots of people using aluminum tape on their toroids.  My
toroid
 > is
 >  >  > made from aluminum duct riveted to a water heater pan, and I'd love
to
 >  >  > smooth it out with aluminum tape.  But this tape has an adhesive
 > backing,
 >  >  > making it nonconductive on the backside.  With no electrical
conduction
 >  >  > between the aluminum side of the tape and the aluminum duct, what
 > effect
 >  >  > will this have on performance?  And couldn't the adhesive act like a
 >  >  > dielectric and add more capacitance between the two aluminum
surfaces
 >  > (tape
 >  >  > and duct)?  It must not really matter, but I figure I had better ask
 > the
 >  >  > pros before wasting money on AL tape.
 >  >  >
 >  >  > Thanks!
 >  >  > Jack
 >  >  >
 >  >  >
 >  >  >
 >  >
 >  >
 >  > ---
 >  > [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Surfside Internet]
 >  >
 >  >
 >
 >