My homemade Van De Graaff

[Insomniac]

I had seen plans for a simple van de graaff here and finally decided to make my own. It is pretty much the same as the plans, but it has a slightly bigger motor, (6-12V motor, at 12 it runs too fast and the belt flops all over the place, 7-8V is a better speed. I run it with 2 half-dead 6v batteries in the vid), the can is cut slightly differently, the part the fuse rotates on is made of bamboo skewer instead of a nail, and I made a pulley for the motor made of layers of heatshrink tube and some pvc electrical tape (pvc is a good material for the roller opposite the glass)

I also made a big leyden jar out of a large soda bottle. I was very careful around it as I really, REALLY didn't want to get shocked by it (much smaller ones still hurt)

I took that leyden jar apart because it was too difficult to safely discharge. The plastic would keep quite a strong static charge even after my best efforts to discharge it (shorting out the nail to the side for a long time, touching it down the whole side at once with a long bit of metal (would crackle and spark when doing this). I even tried putting it under running water, and still got a smallish, painful zap when I picked it up. Must have somthing to do with the plastic because my smaller glass leyden doesn't hold any charge after it has been discharged.

[youtube][/youtube]

What do you think?

[Demon]

Very cool...but not spudgun related.

I got some of my topics deleted because i was not talking of spudguns.

[Insomniac]

Well.... I have posted this in 'non-spudgun related discussion' so I don't think there will be a problem.

[mark.f]

Nice, what are you thinking of building next?

[Eddbot]

cool, i think i'm gonna have to try that today

[psycix]

Ofcourse this is spudgun related!
Sparks n spudguns, ignition!

Awesome project you got there!

[jimmy101]

Insomniac: That's working amazingly well. Cost you what $0 to build?

What kind of rubber band are you using and did you have to sand (or burn) the paint off the outside, and the lining off the inside, of the Al can?

[Insomniac]

Amazingly you say

It cost a little bit to build, mainly because I didn't have all the stuff lying around. I bought a new motor, the pvc, the can of pepsi, wire (I had run out), electrical tape, (also running out), the glass fuses, heat shrink tube etc... Most people would have at least some of this lying around.

The rubber band was a bit of a fluke really, I bought a bag of 'various rubber bands' and it happened to have a nice long, wide-ish one that I could use. The can is unmodified, I just cut the bottom off and ran electical tape over edge to stop it bleeding off the charge so much.

[Antonio]

pretty cool Insomniac:)