Upper Disk 2

Getting the form Right

Raw FRP shell condenser shell form

Condenser shell form

I April 2012

The raw FRP ( Fiberglass Reinforced Polyester) shell form needs to be repaired and trued before the actual condenser can be created on it. Due to working alone there are starved areas in the FRP where there is not enough polyester resin to float the fiberglass. These white streaks are weak areas and need to be ground out and refilled with FRP before the shell can be built up and trued. There are many high areas that must be ground down to a minimum thickness and all other areas built up to obtain a smooth and true curve with little or no ripple under the capacitance foils.

After the minimum thickness is true and strong and stable, the low areas that remain can be filled with resin fillers and further trued. It took most of 6 weeks to get to this point. Now the edge must be trued to the center point so the curvatures are even and smooth.

Electron fields concentrate at points of sharpest curvature and we want the fields to maximize at the disk edge with the least loss. The more true and smooth this surface is the better the quality of the capacitance layers to be created on it.  Any high areas can result in thin dielectric and possible failure. Any low areas will result in loss in capacitance.

marking the shell form for truing

To obtain a true edge a wire is connected to the top center point and used to draw concentric circles that are tested with the template that is a cut and marked piece of heavy corrugated card board. The use of this shows the areas that need to be ground down or built up to achieve a true shape. After nearly 3 gallons of filler the surface is very true. Now layers of polyester resin are applied and sanded to create a smooth surface, each more smooth and true then the last.  Now I need to clean the work area as everything is covered with a thick layer of polyester dust.  😥

Now to add the coils

The great coil and plasma jet in place

The 130 turn spiral wound high voltage coil has been cut out of the old device and mounted under the disk frame with the plasma jet pointed down.

The black coil around the spiral coil is the 24 turn  primary coil,  and the white coil above it is the bundle of driver coils for the twitch coils.

Inside of the central frame cage is the shell field driver coil that is connected to the groundplain in the rim and to the surface field cap on top of the coil and the outer skin of the shell.

Center coils inside disk

The shell field coil is induction driven 165 turns of 12ga tw covered wire and should create a 100,000 volt field on the shell capacitance due to the 600+ volt per turn field strength.

The shell field coil and twitch coils are loosely coupled to the main field and are jointly connected to the groundplain to make their operation independent of any back EMF from the spiral coil and primary driver that are connected together as an autocoil.

The primary and spiral coils should drive the plasma jet pincushion to about 100,000 volts.  At some time the primary coil can also be connected to the groundplain if needed for testing.

Twitch coils in place in disk edge

The primary coil is a bundle of 24 turns of stranded 12ga THWH inside polyethylene tubing and is powered by the 15,000 volt spark gap set. This should set up a 600+volt per turn field inside of all the coils

The twitch coils are mounted and connected to the groundplain.  2 turns per twitch coil are bundled into the white twitch coil driver necklace above the primary coil to independently provide 1200 volts to each twitch coil LC set. The twitch coils are 90 degrees to the other coils so are nearly independent of the main field.

FRP shell with cap in place

Every other segment is connected to the groundplain and bottom of the shell field coil. A coil/shell cap with carbon fiber whip has been created and covered with aluminum foil to act as the connection from the top of the field coil to the shells’ upper aluminum covering. The upper third needs to be trued by grinding and filling to the finished level as I prepare  to apply the inter condenser copper foil.

x

Construction of the Actual Shell Condenser

Inter Layer of copper foil

 

The FRP shell is ready for the addition of the copper foil segments that act as the inter layer of the shell condenser. Each segment connects to one side of the twitch coil behind it

Next, add the shell condenser  copper foil inter layer on the shell form. After several attempts I have found a way to apply a satisfactory copper foil layer to the form.

WOW!  This is starting to look impressive! If nothing else this is a work of Art or at least of PG.   😎    When the outer shell is finished this will be stunning! even if it doesn’t move.

The blue level is tape to hold the foil segments against the wires from the interior circuits. This is removed as I create the outer edge.

The outer edge form is done .

x

x

x

Fiberglass gores in place on shell

The outer edge shape is done and I am ready to build up the FRP shell over the inter condenser foil level. The Resin needed is on hand and the fiberglass mat is on its’ way. Hurrah! the end is in sight.

The Fiberglass mat has arrived and is being applied. Gores of mat are cut and taped in place with a slight overlap, then catalyst treated resin is poured on and rolled into the mat until the glass “floats” and air bubbles are eliminated. Fast work is necessary to complete the fill all the way around before the resin sets. To successfully make this, by myself, it is done in 3 layers. Each layer of mat requires the application of 3 and a half gallons of treated resin.

finished shell with aluminum skin

The shell shape is complete and covered with aluminum foil gilding.

A few coats of polyester and sand it smooth.

I just, have to, smoke test this!! Chase a few electrons around and around! light up some old florescent tubes.

It has been nearly 20 years since I energized the great coil

27 February 2013

Polyester coated Shell condenser outside the hanger area.

The polyester coated shell is well cured and has been moved outside the hanger area. Now I have a lot more room to work and I have the greenhouse back  😎 for early spring grow out.

NOTE: Be sure to click on the pictures for a better view and more information in comments.  pg

Next see Condenser Disk and  Hurrah!

A Cheap Greenhouse

Simple hoop house.

Hoop house, a cheap green house

Inside hoop house

A cheap Hoophouse

An inexpensive greenhouse that goes up fast is a hoophouse made up of PVC pipe and clear polyethylene covering .

This is  a rebuild of a hoophouse that I originally created in the winter of 96-97  and after 6 years removed when I built the main dugout greenhouse.

This year I recreated it with some improvements to reflect experience of the earlier use.

As before, this is a very nice place to work in the winter and early spring.  Also a great place to sit in and visit with friends when the weather is too nasty to be out in the nearby Veranda.

Construction

hoop house hoop anchor

To create this hoop house, I used 1 and 1/4 inch PVC  schedule 40 pipe, 10 foot lengths, these were glued together with “T”s or “X”s and spaced 48 inches apart.

The hoops are anchored with 3/4 inch steel pipe driven into the ground on 48 inch centers in rows 12 feet apart.

By supporting the hoop ends 8 inches above the ground I raised the center of the hoop  to 7 feet of clearance under the stiffeners and made the house feel much larger. Lateral stiffeners are run from end to end to stabilize the ends and spread the loading in wind and snow. One on each side and one in the center. The hoop stiffeners are 2×8 – 48 inch long, cut to match the hoop curve, and “duck” taped to the hoops.

hoop house end clamps

After the ends are created and stabilized to be square and plumb, cover them with the sheet plastic and fix it with “duck” tape on or around the pipe and staple into any wood framing.  For best results tape the plastic and then staple through the plastic and tape. Only after every thing else is done do you attach the main covering.  It is best if you have help for this part as the wind will come up as soon as you start this.  If you tape and staple the covering to the windward side you can pull and attach the covering on the leeward side by yourself. Work from the center towards the ends to draw the covering smooth.

Note: the end clamps are made of 1 and 1/2 inch PVC scheduled 40 pipe split in half and screwed to the end hoops to clamp the end plastic and covering plastic tightly to the end hoops.

hoop house rug door

This door is a piece of old rug that is heavy enough to cover the doorway but can be moved or tied aside for ventilation. This place will get hot in late spring.

“DUCK” tape, cloth tape, originally made by the DUCK tape company now generally called duct tape as it is often used in duct work. you will need a large roll and the good stuff is worth the extra price.

After the covering is done, add wood battens to the stapled and taped edges to make the coverings wind tight around the bottom edges.

Cheap 6mil poly will last until the hot weather makes it brittle, good quality greenhouse coverings will last 5 years and cost about 3 times the cheap stuff. These hoops are the original ones. It is best to bend the hoops in warm weather as they are very hard to bend when cold.  pg

Planting Bed

Update, February 2013 we removed the old disintegrating covering of polyethylene and covered with new “greenhouse covering” plastic. this should last several years. I am tired of replacing the covering after every summer.

As we are having problems with pocket gophers this added central planting bed is lined with 1/2 inch grid screen, galvanized steel. The rack will be used to provide support for crop to keep it off of the planting soil in the bed.

Greenhouse Covering

You can see that the new covering is much clearer than the old cheap polyethylene cover. It should also have a better transmittance of solar energy. We will see just how happy the plants are after a few months.  pg

Be sure to “click” on the pictures for a better view and more information in comments.  pg

Defkalion Letter

I received a Email letter from Defkalion this week.

The Defkalion corp. is the Greek group that was formerly working with A. Rossi a year ago.

When Rossi was first contacted, I was directed to their site as a contact point for obtaining a working device. The reply I got gave me a bad feeling about their views on conducting business, so I dropped that connection and considered warning Rossi of my bad feelings. Soon after that he ended the arrangement on his own.

The letter I received was to offer me a chance to invest or buy into the technology for only 40.5 million Euro for a license to manufacture and market their devices in a market area.They wanted to do only the R&D and sell factories. A quote from the letter.

“Defkalion will become the first global player in LENR using its proprietary technology to commercialize its new products and diversify into new Research & Development efforts for new applications. It plans to have a fully operational prototype ready by July 2012.”

I don’t believe that they have a working device yet as one of their earlier this year comments on their site said that they were testing 1,000s of combinations to discover the correct combination for the fuel cartridge. This was soon after Rossi refused to sell them his cartridges. They have made and canceled several dates that they would publicly demonstrate a working device.

I have seen nothing yet that would lead me to believe that Defkalion researchers have a grasp on the needs for a useful LENR reactor.  pg

Update on December 26 2012.

Stremmenos Letter        of 19 December 2012, a must read to get a better understanding of the Rossi – Defkalion connection.  pg