Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Re: Home Made Spot Welder
Date: Jun 24, 2:10 pm
Poster: Scott Stephens

On Jun 24, 2:10 pm, Scott Stephens wrote:

> The gap would be extremely small and energy control would rely on a variable gap spacing. A triggered air gap might be devised, but would need frequent servicing due to the small size and rapid electrode errosion.

>If one were successful at the task it would probably mean that a lot of development time was given over to the task.
>
>Any one want to try?

My second Tesla Coil used a microwave oven tranny (MOT) and a .5uF primary capacitor. The gap was tiny and difficult to adjust. It fould too bad to fire within 10 seconds.

So I used a light dimmer and 1uF cap across a car coil, to synchronously fire the MOT's 60Hz 2KV power. I coupled the car coil's 20 KV through a .001uF cap to the middle electrode of a 5 section spark gap.

It ran for a minute until the 6KV, 2"x8" cylindrical cap failed. I thought it was polyethylene and would take the abuse. The gap electrodes get real hot and foul (oxidize) real quick. But for intermitent pulses, it probably wouldn't matter. If it was sealed in a jar, the oxygen would quickly be depleted by the electrodes.

Scott