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Re: [TCML] capacitors



Hi Tomas,

Just because you have "lots of capacitors" dosen't necessarily
mean that you have the makings for a suitable Tesla coil capa-
citor. As otheres have already pointed out, your proposed
capacitor specifications are very robust and would represent
a primary capacitor of the caliber of Greg Leyh's Electrum!
As an example, Kevin Eldrege only uses .173 uFd (173 nFd)
for the primary cap of his huge coil:
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=oklahoma+biggg+telsa+coil&search=Search
Also, there are other factors for the primary capacitor(s) that
must be considered aside from just the voltage/capacitance rating,
such as the dielectric dissipation losses, repetition rate, voltage
reversals and actually internal construction details of the capacitor(s).
Sure, you could cobble up a capacitor of a 40 kV @ .25 uFd
rating, but if dosen't have a properly low dissipation loss or is unable
to handle rapid pulse charge/discharge cycling (like filter grade, mylar
dielectric capacitors, for instance), then it will quickly overheat and self
destruct when subjected to the very harsh operational conditions of
the huge Tesla primary circuit! And at the power levels that a capa-
citor of that size would be processing, I wouldn't want to be anywhere
around when that happened!

It appears that you may need to further familiarize yourself on the subject
and also consider starting out with a smaller coil before jumping into
such a huge coil system. Mistakes at low power can cost you money but
mistakes at very high power levels can cost you your life! I would suggest
reviewing Richie Burnett's Tesla coil webpage: http://www.richieburnett.co.uk/tesla.shtml


Be careful,
David

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tomas Stankevic" <Tomas.Stankevic@xxxxxxxx>
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 3:05 PM
Subject: Re: [TCML] capacitors



Actually I have lots of capacitors,

Mddeming@xxxxxxx wrote:
In a message dated 12/3/07 1:13:36 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, Tomas.Stankevic@xxxxxxxx writes:

,
what capacitors would you recommend me to build a 250nF @ 40kV MMC? (for DC TC powered by 3phase pig) how much (approximately) it will cost? What about shipping to Lithuania?

Tomaš



Hi Tomaš,
The cost would depend not just on the voltage, but also how much power you will be putting through, as power determines the peak current your caps will have to handle. Since the CD caps run ~$3.30 each, and you may need several hundreds of them, a custom-made cap might be cheaper than an MMC. I believe Dr R. may be the best source for truly large caps. Matt D.




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