Re: Saltwater Caps

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Christopher Boden by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>


>Original poster: "Cory Roussel by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><imcuddlycory-at-yahoo-dot-com>
>
>Hello all,
>
>After seeing lots of tesla coils with saltwater caps I
>decided to build one... My results are- THEY ARE
>WIMPY!  bad... apparently saltwater, in the realm of
>HV experimenting is only useful as a resistor... :-(!

I'll overlook that I've made 6'+ arcs with SW caps. And that Tesla himself 
used them. Or that others have been using them with great reliability and 
success for 100+ years :)



>
>i dont know if any of you all have any comments on the
>way i went about it but my experiment is as follows:
>
>took a large mason jar, filled it with water, added
>about an Oz of rock salt


Problem #1. Add more salt. You want a super-saturated solution of as much 
salt as the water will hold.

>(im sure my electrode will
>corrode after a while with this stuff :-/   )  then i
>heated it and mixed the salt in, tastes less salty
>than seawater... even though rock salt isnt good for
>you...

yeah, definately need more salt. And you can use Table salt just fine (or 
just about any kind of salt) and it may dissolve better than rock.


>then covered the surface in medium thickness
>foil then a large screw through the top of the jar,
>almost completely submerged, leads ran off the
>aluminum and the screw that are connected in parallel

Try a submerged system, they work a lot more reliably (less thermal 
shocking) and efficiantly (more contact area) than a Dry system.


>with my small 7000V .9mA DC (yes its wimpy too but
>charges caps) source ,

Woah........ok.....in scientific terms.....
You can't run with the bigs dogs if you pee like a puppy.

Are you sure about that decimal, as in POINT-Nine mA?

You can't expect to get any power OUT if you're not putting power IN. And 
7kV .9mA is beyond wimpy. Try getting even a simple OBIT (10kV 23mA) or 
better yet a small NST at 12kV 30mA) and you'll see MUCH better results.


>then shorted the caps while
>running, got a small slightly more intensified then
>the HV source spark about half inch long... i could
>hear crackling on teh homade cap does this mean its
>puncturing???
>

No, your hearing the surface arcing along the class. It's normal (and if you 
have a transparent "Wet" system (think, aquarium) it's beautiful).


SW caps can be made simply and cheaply. They're great for certain uses (we 
use them all the time for testing and design, places where we don't quite 
have the particulars worked out). I have 4 SW caps that have been in regular 
use for over....hmmm....about 3 years now. We've had one bottle fail, one 
time, that's it. And it took less than 5 minutes to repair :)

http://www.thegeekgroup-dot-org/Flash/how%20to/bucket%20caps.html

There's the ultimate SW cap for practical use. It's light, portable, simple, 
and easy to build under $20.



>big sparks and hot arcs,
>
>Cory Roussel



duck




Christopher A. Boden Geek#1
President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
The Geek Group
www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!



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