Tungsten

[thedoc298]

Building my synchronous spark gap, but on the safety gap it it better to have more surface area like 1/4 inch or 1/8 and round tip verses flat ends. I guess this also pertains to the tungsten on the spark gap rotor also. Thanks for any tips.

[MRMILSTAR]

For the safety gap, it doesn't make much difference. The effect of different tip shapes will be to vary the firing distance between electrodes for a given safety voltage. The more pointed the electrodes, the distance between the electrodes must be increased to fire at the same voltage as less pointy tips.

As far as the RSG electrodes are concerned, I don't know that it makes much difference. I just use flat tips on my tungsten electrodes and it seems to work just fine. They will naturally round off as they wear. Some would argue that you should use rounded tips to avoid sharp edges which results in corona. The corona then theoretically could make the firing points occur slightly sooner than when the electrodes are at their minimum distance and also make the plasma slightly harder to quench. I just don't like the idea of grinding off any of the material from the tungsten tips. They are already wear items. Why grind off material that accelerates the wear?

[thedoc298]

Makes good sense. Thanks again, getting close to d day.