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![[The V2]](van3.gif)
This thing has sat unimproved for quite some time now, but it
still is calmly awaiting the arrival of a good discharge
terminal. I've tried the thing with a large aluminum kettle
balanced on top, but with the handles on it the spark has been
limited to 7 to 8".
Okay! I made some improvements ;) The bottom roller was always a problem, as I accidently had center drilled it a little off-center, so it turned the whole thing into a sort of high-voltage vibrator... No! (aw, come on. You just CAN'T deny the phallic symbolism of all things high voltage. And words like "discharge" and "electrostatic attraction" just don't help at all)
Here's a closeup of the upper pulley, after
replacment. It is made from a caster designed for beds and stuff,
and appears to be cast from nylon or something. Perfect for this,
as it is barrel-shaped. It is covered with a layer of aluminum
tape. The brass shimstock forming the collector brush can be
seen, as well as the support rods for the terminal. The shaft is
made from 1/4" steel rod, and there are spacers on it on
each side of the pulley to keep it centered. They are cut from a
bic pen casing.
This shows the new base assembly, with the
high-speed motor, pully, bearing block and steel upright supports
seen. I don't really like this base design, it isn't what I had
planned on, but the bearing block was needed because of the shaft
length, and the wooden upright leaned, allowing the belt to
contact the wall of the PVC column. This slows down the
generator, and puts a whole lot of wear on the belt. The streaks
of black gunk left on the PVC column by it also reduce the
output, by causing a little more leakage.
This is a closeup of the bearing set into the
wooden upright. This REALLY helped bring the speed of the thing
up.
This shows the bottom pulley. You can see part of
the coupler between the motor shaft and the long carraige bolt I
used as the shaft. The motor was orininally intended to run a
mixing tool of some variety, and has a chuck that locks onto a
5/32 shaft or so. This pulley was left free of any aluminum tape.
The grounded charge brush can be seen below the pulley, as well
as one of the steel upright supports behind it.
email: electrophile@juno.com