Recent content by Tom Rauji

Any supply he builds for a Jacob's ladder is going to be a big risk. That's the nature of the beast. It has to start an arc, generate plasma, and sustain that plasma.

This is going all over the place. He wants to build a Jacob's Ladder. His application requires many kilovolts (depending on spacing) and current limiting (dozens of milliamperes) for that voltage, and works much better with low frequency AC. What works at low voltage high current dc isn't going...

You are not going to be able to use a flyback style system to power a Jacob's ladder. The Jacob's ladder requires an almost continuous arc voltage to generate a steady arc-plasma that climbs with air convection from the plasma heating surrounding air. A flyback or induction system is a "recoil"...

Radiation resistance has little to do with flux density in the axis of a tank coil or resonator in a resonant circuit.

Loading or tuning inductors and tank coils in older high power transmitters were mostly air core. While the antenna system (excluding loading or tuning coils) itself does not have have enough magnetic field in a small area, certainly a large open core inductor could. There could easily be a...

Whoever said they can't have metal near a VLF system might be telling the truth, or it might be a lie. The issue would be the local magnetic field. A transmitter tank coil or an antenna matching or loading inductor, in even a modest power transmitter, can have enough flux density to heat small...

The specified lug torque on my F250 4X4 pickup truck is 190-210 ft-lbs. On my car which has a 1/2 inch stud, torque is 90-120 for tapered (lug centric) nuts on steel wheels. My uniform shank aluminum wheel lugs are spec'ed 140-160 ft-lbs. I don't think a driver over tightening the lugs is...

I'm a "gear head" and have been for over 50 years. Let me make a few points: Wheels are either hub centric where the hub locates the wheel, or lug centric where the lug locates the wheel. While the lug nut or bolt is held in place by friction, most of the locking is caused by distortion of...

OK, thanks for your time. I guess we have reached the limit.

Because of power levels and tires today, 50/50 rears and 90/10 fronts aren't useful on faster cars. Racers generally use two distinct rear shock settings, extension faster on radials and slow on bias sidewalls. They use two different rear shock "bump" or collapse settings, slow on radials and...

OK. I'll get on the correct terms. I stiffened the bump or collapse. The rebound is half as it always was. I have no issues with body roll. The body roll is caused by reaction to driveshaft torque. The engine torque is rotating the rear end up on the right side and down on the left. I have an...

It's easy to get this confused. The rebound is the collapse. The extension is the hit when in separation. I left the extension at my normal levels that are on the edge of distorting the sidewall. I only adjusted the rebound to control the upward tire bounce. This would keep the back higher...

Thanks much. This is the most helpful exchange I have had on this topic. Most appreciated. I'm going to see if I can interleave my responses...I'm not sure how this forum works for that. Up to a certain level I had back tire separation and could plant the tire hard and get the weight on the...

This is great. This is very helpful. I'm an electrical engineer, not mechanical, so I'm a little stupid on this. So I treat the axle wrap as a couple and it just adds into other forces as a vector? Can you recommend a good book that deals with this? Not necessarily for cars, but the physics...

Right! I've had a real 4 link and a few ladder bar cars over years. I have a good grasp of real ladder bar and four link cars. The issue I have is how people are plotting Mustang Fox "four links" with the short upper arm tied to the floor by the package tray and the lower to the frame rails...