How do I stop this from sparking

I have a lot of capacitors in a parallel. I have them all charged. I am trying to discharge them to an electromagnet.

Whenever I do, there is a huge spark and it sounds like a gunshot then then the wires get fused together.

How can I switch on my magnet without that huge spark?

A magnet may be described as the equivalent of an inductor and a series resistance (the resistance of the wire turns). If you apply a DC voltage to such a circuit the current begins to increase until a point it is limited only by its series resistance. By your description I suppose the inductance and the resistance are, both, very small. The first solution is obviously to decrease the voltage applied to the capacitos, but this also decreases the total energy delivered to the magnet. You can counterweight this by adding more capacitors in parallel. Adding an external series resistance will also decrease the current but also at the expense of less energy supplied to the magnet. Another solution would be switching the current through a transistor. In this case you′ll be able to control the average current by controlling the duty cycle of the switcher. In this case you′ll have to place a a diode in parallel with the magnet to give the current a path to flow when the switch goes off. This circuit is much like a buck converter and is out of this scope. Also, please, carefully inspect your magnet to see if there are no shortcircuited turns. This will drastically increase the current. Hope this can help you.

i can assume you are trying to make some kind of pulse magnetic circuit.
the wires will get fuse because of ark formed at the time of make-contact.
you will have to use some kind of spark-gap switch if your voltage is in KV. for lower voltage you can use a triac switch of suitable current rating. (not SCR as you need the sinusoidal current in the coil)

if you need help let me know and post your schematic.

hock

well Im trying to make an EMP Gun.

The circuit is very simple.

I have about 10 300v @ 80uf capacitors in a parallel.
My charging circuit is separate.

Originally I had a toggle switch that threw on the magnet for a short burst.
When I toggled it, the switch literally exploded every time, lol.


What kind of transistor could I use that wouldnt blow?

I also read about using a 555 Timer?

I guess I just need some kind of electric switch that will not explode.

Thanks!

valve could be the best choise for you if you do not want to use TRIAC.
hock