Comments on: Building a Wimshurst Machine – Part 2.

By: Asciimation » Blog Archives » More on the steampunk-o-phone.

Asciimation » Blog Archives » More on the steampunk-o-phone. — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 08:33:12 +0000

[...] To cover the servo I made a small copper cover made from an old soaker plate I had lying about. It is also worth mentioning here that the drive belt I am using is a poly cord belt used on wool spinning machines (again off TradeMe). It comes in a long length that you cut to size then you melt the ends in a candle flame and press them together to form a continuous belt. I used these belts with great success in my Wimshurst machine. [...]

By: Simon

Simon — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 19:45:13 +0000

No, glass is definitely a bad idea as I found out! I also know about the black plastic or rather black paint when years ago I painted the water jacket of a CO2 laser with black paint then worried about conduction across it.

By: luiz alberto feijo jr

luiz alberto feijo jr — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:21:35 +0000

Nice job! I suppose yuo learned we can never trust in glass as an isolator – in fact most of them do have lead mixed on this composition – and this makes it a little conductive. This problem is bigger than the hygroscopic property of the glass in most cases! And some plastics (specially the black ones ) have also conductive material added. Receive a hug from another electrostatic guy in Brazil!

By: chai

chai — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:45:43 +0000

thank you very much

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:27:24 +0000

Paint didn’t make any difference actually. It’s more affected by humidity!

By: David

David — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:04:09 +0000

The paint didn’t reduce the resistance then? Sparks are still just as large?