Van De Graaff how it's built

[Erik753820]

Nice construction!

[1z2x1a2s1q2w]

my belt rolles of the roller

[bonarka]

I've covered my lower roller with teflon tape and upper roller with plastic foil. I've also change the belt. Now i'm using the fitness belt it look's like yours. But it still does not work. :( What i'm doing wrong?

[megaHDdude]

@bonarka everything...



[bonarka]

I was trying to made one van de graaff generator in my home but it does not work. The upper roller is made of rubber and lower is made of metal (it's drives by the engine from the drill). As a rubber belt i"ve got the innertube from bike. the lower comb is attached to the gdound and the upper comb to hollow sphere. Help me please!!!

[mikeandtiff]

one thing first is do not use a bike inertube for a belt. It is made of black conductive rubber, and will not work. Also, try useing a type of plastic like nylon instead of a rubber roller.. Rubber belt and rubber roller will not work. Best of luck! Hope i could help.

[megaHDdude]

@bonarka actually u should use plastic 4 d bottom roller and glass 4 the top... it works great! 4 d spark touch the lower comb and bring ur finger near the sphere... u vil see a blue spark...... dont wory as it only generates 12,500 volts of electricity.. :P seriously.. its safe.. :)

[QuaziGNRLNose]

what should you use for the different rollers?

like what would be best, and where would you get these materials? any reason why nylon is used at the top instead of lets say abs or pvc pipe? or any other plastic for that matter? and why teflon is used at the bottom?

[megaHDdude]

@QuaziGNRLNose dude u can use anything.. jst take care tat 1 carries a +ve charge n the other carries a -ve ....tats it.

[laban123321]

how fast must the motor spin?

[mikeandtiff]

aprx. 1700 RPM... the faster the better! you'll get a much voltage with a higher speed belt

[SanchezAfricano]

is the ground wire literally connected the earth?

[mikeandtiff]

yes, Earth ground for sure. a few tips for around the house and/or appt. is use a cold water pipe ( be sure its copper!) or a heat duct in the basement works great as a ground for your VDG. Best of luck!

-Mike

[QuaziGNRLNose]

will a copper pipe or metal stake hammered into the soil work?

[megaHDdude]

@QuaziGNRLNose no

actually u can hold on to it.

[gmfrk197]

It looked like your top brushed are touching the belt. It works best if there is a few mm gap. Other than that, great job.

[mikeandtiff]

There is Aprx. a 1/4" of air gap btwn. the top and lower brushes and belt. Must get as close as can be for best results, without touching the belt... do not want any copper residue on the belt! Thanks for viewing!

-Mike

[jupy921]

Nice job on the Generator.

[mikeandtiff]

thank you; the new model performs much better! thanks for viewing/commenting

[SciVoltage]

Thanks for the video Mike!

I beleive "triboelectric material" were the the words you were searching for to describe the teflon.

And you are right, it is on the extreme negative end of the scale.

[boyettewhite]

on my machines i have built in the past i painted the bottom roller with metalic paint. and used metalic painted paper cut with serated sizzors for the pickup combs and got outstanding results.

[ScienceKinetics]

Nice VDG and video.

[svelemoe]

should the brushes on the top and bottom be in touch with the band? sorry if this was answered in the video, my speakers are messed up.

[cribcat1]

good video!

[jman51]

in theory teflon should be used on the top roller, and something like glass or nylon should be used on the bottom.

[mikeandtiff]

The Theory on how the VDG machine works, is not based on the location of your roller material; but the fact of useing the triboelectric series table. Thanks for viewing

[friedrichsacher]

the best is to use plastic as bottom roller and metal at the top. brings big results

[dundermiflinpaper]

yea, i was wondering about that

[Neumus]

the down brusher is connected to what?

[dundermiflinpaper]

ground

[pyrokid113]

i didnt see this one work

[mikeandtiff]

Check some of my other videos I have posted up..There are a few of it running. Most of my better videos are of my Jacobs ladder.. Thanks for viewing

[guitar87tommy]

HOW DO U MAKE ONE OF THESE

[rajiephonepal]

hi there...can i have the procedures and the materials you used in building this van de graaff because my teacher wants us to submit a project and i watch your videos and i like it so i want to make one to pass to my teacher,....hope u will reply as soon as possible

tanx

[scion171777]

what rollers did u used???

[mikeandtiff]

The bottom roller is nothing more then the motor shaft, lined with tephlon ( didnt spell that right i know) tape, and I used a nylon bed frame wheel for the top roller..

[scion171777]

can u make a van de graaff video but it's hand crank??????

[mikeandtiff]

Hand crank van de graaff's Im sure can be built, but I dont reccomend that.. ( only due to getting the belt up to speed) however i'm sure it can be done, but useing an old box fan motor, or something like that would prob be much easer to build.

[ThunderDonkey]

cant ya show it running?

[mikeandtiff]

i have a few vids posted here on youtube of it running.. crap part about it is, my camera didnt pick up the sparks as well as i thought it would. Feel free to view em!

[jakefire1100]

was up

[friedrichsacher]

Ok. I want to try out this!

[friedrichsacher]

Can you tell me, where are the motor from???

Please answer!!!

[mikeandtiff]

Sure! the one i'm useing is from an old furnace blower fan. Its a bit overkill to turn a belt, but that was All i had at the time. One helpfull tip for you, try finding and useing motors from sewing machines and even old box fan motors work nice. However, if you use a box fan motor, put a small computer fan on the back of it to keep it cool..otherwise your motor will overheat, and stop. Best of luck to you!

[friedrichsacher]

Thank you! But can I also use a motor from a simple fan? Cause I'm actually useing a sewing machine but the shaft is very very short! So I put a PVC Pipe on the shaft and this don't work cause the shaft (PVC Pipe) on the motor is heating up to much and broke after a few minutes. These system works generally (max. 1 inch Sparks)but not a long time!

What I want to say is: Can I use a motor from a simple fan?

[mikeandtiff]

This model that I built is the third one. The first one I had mad I used a motor from a window box fan..Reason why is because the motor shaft on those are about 1.5 inchs long, and able to use more belt. Drug stores like Walgreens and even walmart have cheap fans, and great for parts. Like I mentioned before,( and why mine stopped running) is have a computer powersupply fan blow on the back of the motor to keep it cool, and that should def work for you.

[tiver62]

the coated bloom is the cheapest collector

[joesbees]

It's true. Thats why you've got to tune the things. My understanding of the combs is if you've got fewer points close to the belt a higher electron concentration builds up and and they jump. If you have too much area close to the belt the concentration never get's high enough at a point to 'break ionic wind'. (I may be misusing that term but I wanted to use that phrase.) I had a lot of combs and it wouldn't work in a more humid environment but would work when I used less.

[mikeandtiff]

...Very interesting.. Well man, I will take your advice, and play around with the combs. Maybe there might be more potential in my machine then what is has! Now that it is summer, It will make it hard for me to try and tune it up. ( i'll just have top put some space heaters all around it! )Again, Thanks for the input!

[mikeandtiff]

This machine ( on a dry day can produce up to 6 inch sparks.. The bowl works out well,tho it does create a lot of corona discharge around the edges. Keeping as many combs near the belt makes it easer for the elctrons to "jump to" and "jump from"... I did try what you said, but didnt get the same effects.. Guess everyones VDG's differ huh?

[mikeandtiff]

( I tend to break Ionic wind when I eat to much chili..)

[joesbees]

Also try using less brushes. I've found that when using a lot of copper close to the belt it's harder to build up enough potential for the electrons to jump the gap. On the other hand too few of combs results in not collecting the full potenial off your belt. Try bending up all but 10-15 strands of your copper brushes and spread them out across the the belt.

[mikeandtiff]

Thanks for viewing and commenting! Oh yea, thats a great Idea useing a lamp dimmer!, unfortly the type of motor I'm useing is strictly "all inductive" and varying the voltage and or current will just change how much tourqe the motor would produce...I need to change the line frequency to speed it up.

[joesbees]

This is very similar to the one I built. But I have my nylon roller on the bottom and pvc on the top. Just means I have a different charge on my bowls. You've probably losing a lot of charge by not using two bowls to make a complete sphere. How long are your sparks? Mine makes 4+ inch sparks. I've got about 8" bowls and my belt is also blue excercise rubber about 1.25" wide What did you use for bearings?

[mikeandtiff]

My damn camra would only let me take so much video. I had to try and talk and explain as much as a could, as fast as I could.. I wanted to get into more detail, But the damn thing wouildn't let me! Thanks for viewing. Hope I could help out

[newtonianbarf]

What you were trying to say is that teflon is one of the most negative insulators on the triboelectric seiries.

[mikeandtiff]

Yes sir, thats correct! ( had one to many beers that night) Thanks for clarifying that for me, and thanks for viewing! -Mike

[gt4awd]

Good explanation and video.