How to make a spark gap

[concrete_hed]

if you want to find out more about coils then read the howstuffworks article at: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/inductor.htm

[Mole]

Thanks... I've already been all over howstuffworks for spark plugs, coils for them, inductors, and everything else I could think of...

[x ray]

why not just buy a cheap ignition coil on ebay. I did so i could power my x ray machine

[iNow]

Yeah, I suppose it's possible he did that two years ago.

[CaptainPanic]

I once saw a Neon light with a connection for in the car. Neon lights work at high voltage (10 kV perhaps?), and cars supply 12 V. Regardless of the fact that I'm 2 yrs late with this response, I think it's worth mentioning it exists...

[Lance]

I once saw a Neon light with a connection for in the car. Neon lights work at high voltage (10 kV perhaps?), and cars supply 12 V. Regardless of the fact that I'm 2 yrs late with this response, I think it's worth mentioning it exists...

 

Depends on the neon bulb. Are you talking about actual neon or a neon-like discharge lamp. Neon indicator lamps can be lit by mains voltage (120). If your talking about the colored non-neon discharge tubes they are probably powered by an 12v inverter.

[YT2095]

High frequency near to RF can also excite the gasses in these tubes, try putting a battery powered fluorescent light next to an AM radio!

 

high frequency is also used in these inverters mentioned by Lance, consider a camera flash, have you ever heard that rising high pitched whine it gives off when you switch it on?

that is the charge freq, and there are 2 main HT parts in the flash, the 300+ volts for the actual flash discharge, and about 2KV to trigger this. and yet it only uses 2 or 4 AA batteries to do this, or in the case of a disposable camera flash, a Single AAA batt!

 

Tasers give off several 10`s of KV and yet they only take a pair of 9V batts

[Think it thru]

Most of the ideas seem like overkill to me. Wouldn't it be simpler to get an automobile coil and a coil wire from a parts house and collapse the field in it with a momentary switch, telegraph key, or old auto distributor? Maybe parts houses aren't as readily available to you as they are to me.

 

A late 1940s to mid 1950s 6 cylinder Chevrolet engine coil would be ideal. Ask for a 12 volt replacement one instead of the 6 volt one however.

 

If you use a distributor you could even rig sparkplug wires to sparkplugs set in a show board of plexiglas and then use a crank or a crank/pulley system to turn the distributor which opens and closes the point set causing the electrical field in the coil to collapse causing the higher voltage spark.

 

Guess I should rig up such a deal for my grandsons or the local kids museum.

[imp]

Find a place which caters to old car buffs, buy a replacement Model T Ford ignition coil, hook it up to a 6-volt battery, and you will have all the activity you desire. (they have the vibrating contacts already built-in). imp

[drumfunk]

Hi,

 

I am trying to find a manufacturer or dealer of vacuum spark gaps. I would appreciate any advice on finding a vacuum spark gap. My intention is to replace my air spark gap with a vacuum spark gap for my 250 KV Tesla Coil.

 

I hope to hear from you,

David