What companies or individuals sell spark gaps? I am searching unsuccessfully on the internet for a manufacturer or dealer of vacuum spark gaps. There are no vacuum spark gaps sold on ebay. I am seeking a vacuum spark gap to replace an air spark gap in my 250 KV Tesla Coil.

 

I would appreciate any advice,

David

Usually these things are built individually.

 

I'm guessing that you are looking for something like this (head down to the spark gap section, about half way down):

http://powerlabs.org/coil2.htm

 

The guys here will help out also:

http://www.pupman.com/

 

^^^Tesla Coil mailing list. They can explain this better than I can, and could probably design it for you as well.

 

And to answer your other question about ammeters/voltmeters (hopefully):

 

Usually an oscilloscope is used, with one terminal grounded, and the other one held in the air near the coil to measure the electric field. This field will then correspond to voltage.

 

The peak current in the unit can be calculated based on the tank capacitor size and the inductance of the main coil.

 

Here are some equations:

http://f3wm.free.fr/tesla/theory.html

Thanks again for your advice. If anyone else know of a particular manufacturer of vacuum spark gaps, please inform me.