Date: Sun, 25 May 97 19:11:43 +0100 From: To: Mr Bill Beatty Subject: Thank you note and report of methods used Dear Bill, Thank you for your web page on building a van de graaff generator. My son, age 11, and I used your info and the articles your page cited to successfully build a small machine that was the hit of Fred's 6th grade science fair. At one point you answered a question for us on a 3 2 liter bottle motor but we later decided to build the generator instead. We used 1/8 inch acrylic sheets to build a 6 inches on a side cube with an open bottom and one open side as our base. We follwed the 1955 Scientic American articles' diagram and used an acrylic tube but then cut 2 notches for a top pulley shaft right in the top of the tube. We used a 110 volt 1/150 hp motor and a 7" by 5/8" by 1/8" rubber band as our belt. The top pulley was hard to locate but we finally found a perfect item in a hardware store. The item was sold as part of a 1/4 inch cable connecting kit,it cost 2$ and change and we discarded the connectors and used both of the "stops" each of which was a 3/4 by 3/4 inch clyinder with about a 9/32 hole for a shaft. We used a 1/4 inch solid acrylic rod for the upper pulley shaft. We built another acrlic box, 4 inches on a side and open on the top and bottom, to support the sphere. This method allowed for maximun visibility of all parts except those within the sphere. We also found that copper strips sold for gutter work did nicely for holding the spray screens and connecting to the plus and minus terminals. For the terminals we used another hardware store item, also made of copper, designed to connect to 1/4" marine battery threaded post extensions which included a treaded hole with a flat screw type device ideal for attaching a wire connecting to a wand with round discharging ball and/or a ground wire ect. These were the high points of our design method. We appreciate your having so much info available on the WWW and thought we would try to make a contribution by writing this report in the hope that some other amatuers might be saved some time in finding materials ect. Thanks again, Fred and Bruce (Dad)