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RE: Capacitor Help Needed

Original poster: "Mark Dunn" <mdunn@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


Wilson:

I build parallel plate caps cheaply with polyester film and aluminum
flashing.  I assemble them under oil in a food storage box so no air is
present.  Work great.  Can give you construction details if interested.

Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 7:00 PM
To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Capacitor Help Needed


Original poster: "Wilson Ng" <metalstorm2002@xxxxxxxxxxx>



  Hello list members.

     I have had bad experience with my capacitors. My first one that
worked okay with my tesla coil was a jellyroll cap made from plastic
baggies and metal foil tape. It works well up to about 3 kv. Beyond
that, there will be smoke and popping sounds. Adding additional baggies
for the dielectric decreased the capacitance dramatically. Later I tried
MMCs with a string of 30 200v 2uf metalized polyester
capacitors. It was just
a test to see if the setup works. After several seconds, I smelled smoke
even though the test voltage was only 3kv! I've also tried foil wrapped
bottle caps but it was messy and one bottle cracked. UGGHH!

     After sorting a while through the pupman archives, I was unable to
find anything other than glass bottle caps, MMCs, and homemade plate
caps. These caps have downsides:

      MMCs                 - expensive
      bottle caps          - messy and lossy
      plastic/plate caps  - a pain in the ass to make and not very
                                 reliable
      rolled caps           -   not reliable
      Microwave cap MMC   - possibility of explosion

My question is, is there another way to make a reliable,
cheap, and effective cap without breaking my bank?