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Ignition Suggestion from the Wiki

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:02 am
by TwitchTheAussie
I was reading up on spark strips in the Wiki. I came across this quote.

metalic dust field
A cloud of iron and/or steel dust gathered from grinding, this creats an infinit number of paths for the electricity to travel through. This method is experimental as of the moment, but if done correctly, it will be able to cause the entire chamber to spark.


This should also work if these particles were glued in place around the chamber correct? Im going to study this idea as much as possible to see if it can be done. Imagine heaps of sparks around the chamber :twisted: . Thank god for metal working as an elective in school. Once those bloody filings were a bastard and now they're a blessing in disguise.

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 11:53 am
by imablackskater
sounds awesome if you manage to get it done post it.

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 11:58 am
by noname
It would also be easy to work with the small rings of metal that comes off when you thread the pipe with a die. I think I might try that.

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 1:29 pm
by isban
That would look awesome beyond belief on a clear chamber for the whole thing to light up. I'll definitely have to try that if I get a chance. Keep us posted.

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 1:50 pm
by CS
Just curious what ideas did you have on aerating this fine metallic 'dust'? I'm thinking something that causes turbulence, not more pressure. Something like a fan, although the fans Ive seen used in combustion chambers are far to weak to create enough turbulence to suspend rather dense metallic particles.

Also there would be a issue of 'juice'. Both creating enough, and taking the pass of least resistance. Even if it was capable to jump all the 'gaps', the juice wouldn't be there with anything short of a telsa coil. Second, your ignition 'inputs' are going to connect with the pass of least reistance, thus your not going to get a arc between all particles, or even close to it.

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:03 pm
by boilingleadbath
Thing is, it won't work...
in the best case scenario, you acctualy manage to suspend all the metal particals in the air (so the spark acctualy goes through the mixture insteead through a carpet of them on the bottom of the chamber)... and you get a single path.

It's basicaly the 3-d version of putting a spark across a breadbord. (which latke has pictures of - indeed, one spark)

You'd be better off making a traditional sparkstrip.

I should probably remove that from the wiki.

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:18 pm
by TwitchTheAussie
My idea was not to suspend the particles through the air but have a strip or rig in the chamber, probably glued, and see if I can pass a spark through it.

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:20 pm
by schmanman
it's gone.

I removed it, blb.

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 7:23 pm
by risto
i see what you're saying, twichtheaussie. It could work, but i think only if you have a small strip of them. If you use too many, i dont think the spark will continue the jump across 50 gaps, so lining the inside would a waste.

Well, i dont know, maybe a stun gun ignition used on those dots would make all the jumps...which would cause a MUCH better ignition.

Experiment time!

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 7:41 pm
by Hotwired
I think someone was high when they wrote that one in...

It sounds more like trying to ignite a cloud of metallic dust than actually being an ignition system of its own.

He could at least have given a reason why any electricity not found on extreme high voltage circuits would try to take multiple paths through the cloud...

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 7:51 pm
by risto
yeah and besides, wouldnt that dust cloud have to be refilled after every shot? it would escape out the barrel at ignition.

Also, after working with my stun gun, i found that if you drip lines of solder in a line, and make the two contact points, it will jump those just fine. What if you made this same basic principle in a spiral shape inside a chamber?

would dripped solder stick to PVC pipe?

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 11:49 pm
by TwitchTheAussie
More time for an experiment. But I havent got a soldering iron or any solder so :oops:

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:39 am
by frankrede
i have done something siliar I made a line of bbs spaced with small gaps and run a stun gun thorugh it and made a pretty good spark strip but copper boards would work better

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:13 am
by Insomniac
Some metallic spraypaints can work like that. Sparks jump the tiny gaps between the little metallic particles in the paint.

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:58 am
by frankrede
make sure the paint is dry or you'll lose the paint lol