Spark gap

Brian built this Richard Quick type static gap. There are 10 copper tubes spaced around the inside of a piece of 4" dia drain pipe. Each one of the pipes is spaced 0.2mm and the pipes are held in place with plastic padding and each also has a self tapping screw through the drain pipe and in to the copper so the high voltage wires can be attached and this also lets us vary how many gaps we can use.

The gap now has a base unit made out of a thick piece of plastic this lets air circulate and helps to keep the gap cool (well almost).

The spark gap took some time to build. The hardiest part is keeping the copper pipes the correct distance apart.

Below This is another Static gap that Brian built, it only has one gap and was used in series with our high speed RSG

This is our new rotory spark gap (RSG). It uses a bench grinder motor from a local DIY shop, the motor is a 240v ac 3000 rpm induction motor. The whole thing was built in just one weekend by myself and Steve Bell, with a total cost of 65 UK pounds.

I did all the cutting and measuring and Steve did all the lathe work. The disk took the longest to cut out and true up on the lathe.

All the component parts for the gap were bought from RS (Electro mail).

The disk & base are made of 10mm Tuffnol, all the stationary supports are made of 18mm Brass bar and the electrodes are made of 6mm Brass studding.

The whole unit sits on 4 rubber anti slip feet.

This shot shows the rotating electrods (through the disk) and the stationary electrods. All the electrods are made of 6mm brass studding and are 40mm long. The ends of all the electrodes were finished off in the lathe to make sure that they are true.

The HV leads connect to the top of the stationary support posts on the right.

We did have a few problems with arcing between the stationary supports and the motor casing. This was solved by adding a small plastic sleave around the bottom of the supports and two small plastic blocks under the base.

Below is a pictures of the new RSG electrodes, they are made of a Tungsten & copper alloy so they should withstand the heat a lot better. The bar is avalible in 6mm or 1/4" dia @ 300mm long.