Electric Gloves

[ThatGuy]

I was hoping I could get some help creating a project I want to attempt. A basic explanation of my idea is to have gloves that are resistant to 250kV. The point of that is so that I can add plates to them charged with 230kv and when I put my fingers together I would create sparks. I was looking at mica but am not sure if this is the best material since it would be nice and dielectric but I wasn't able to find any information on how malleable it is. Another option I was thinking of would be PTFE ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTFE ) which seems like another viable option. Any help will be appreciated, thank you.

Oh and for the thickness of the Dielectric if would go for like glove size so that it wouldn't be to bulky but at the same time it doesn't need to be paper thin.​

 

[(*steve*)]

250kV?

What are you smoking?

250kV would jump around your gloves (assuming it didn't go straight through them). And the distance it could spontaneously arc through about 10cm of dry air. Any trace of moisture would let it track a lot further.

 

[ThatGuy]

Kinda the point of the post

I plan on it being DC current so that when it does activate it goes through the air and creates a spark from plate to plate. It also wouldn't be running all the time only when i close my hand a bit. Which would trigger a switch and then turn on the device. And the point of the post was trying to find a material so that the spark would go through air and not my hand.

 

[(*steve*)]

I would recommend wearing all-over metal underwear -- including gauntlets, a balaclava and booties.

Over the top of that you could wear something insulating. An inch or so of moulded plastic (without joins or seams) would do the trick.

Then, wearing eye protection, pick up the plates...

 

[ThatGuy]

So I was wondering if i over calculated the amount of volts that would be needed to arc across about 3 inches of air. I found that the dielectric strength of air to be 3 MV/m so i calculated that for 3 inches it would need to be about 230kv and i just rounded up the resistance because I figured that it couldn't hurt. How many volts would you say would be needed to create 3 inch sparks?

 

[(*steve*)]

What exactly are you trying to do? Why do you want to pull three inch sparks off your fingers? And do you realise that placing a high potential across your arms is about as dangerous a thing as you can do?

 

[CDRIVE]

You wouldn't by any chance be located near Island Lake Illinois or have any relatives there? We have a member that's located there. You two should break bread and have a beer summit.

Chris

 

[Mongrel Shark]

I agree with Steve. This is a really dangerous project. If you need to ask for help, you probably are not experienced enough to do it safely.

If you chose to do it with the level of knowledge you are displaying, and without doing extensive testing. You are putting yourself at extreme risk of death.

100kv will give you your 3 inch sparks. I play with 50kv quite a bit, and it can arc over an inch.

250kv will give you over a foot of arcing, and treat most things as conductors, including the surface of dielectrics if there is an opposing charge on the other side. Like your body (pretty much everything is an opposing charge to 250kv) So as Steve pointed out, the arc would likely travel up the glove and around to your body, likely causing instant death. Or go right through a microscopic pinhole that was undetectable. A well grounded Faraday's suit would be a must for such an experiment!


I would suggest making a 9v powered 555 stun gun, and working up from there. After a few months of playing with HV I am still caught out from time to time, and get zapped. I have made sure my HV driver wont kill me. I wont be upgrading till I get used to what I have first. Things like insulated leads, can make great arc points with HV. Things in the area can store quite a charge via surface capacitance too. I have been zapped quite hard. from a 90L plastic storage crate, a few min after turning off my flyback driver. Turns out the crate can hold a few nano farads worth of charge on its surface... At 50kv thats not quite lethal, it will put me on the floor though! At 250kv it not going to be very forgiving.

Another point, The device you intend to make, could be used as a weapon. To harm or even kill people. Have you considered the legal ramifications, should you, or someone else harm another person either accidentally or intentionally? As well as how you would feel if your party trick turned lethal?


If you must proceed. Watch this video to see how to make a test rig. There is no way you want to trust an online calculator with your life. I'd be doing a few hundred repeat tests on anything I was actually going to use too. Then take worst case results and add some buffer room.

 

[brevor]

Darwin Award

 

[davenn]

Darwin Award

uh huh I was going to comment that he was a contender for such..

Dave

 

[shrtrnd]

Edison tried to sell DC wiring for U.S. home-wiring applications. He had the money
and tried to promote AC from Tesla & Westinghouse as dangerous.
DC voltage is the dealiest form of HV to work with under any circumstances.
Sure, a lot of people are killed by AC but that's because it's most commonly used now (and accidents happen). Hopefully what's been suggested in posts so far, will
dissuade you from killing yourself with this idea.

 

[CDRIVE]

Edison wasn't an idiot. Though AC as a power source may have been new to him I'm sure he understood the basics of why it was superior. He was between a rock and a hard place with $$$$ invested in DC power transmission. For certain it was a stain on his legacy.

Chris