Re: [TCML] TC Newbie

[Matt <tonedeafmessiah@xxxxxxxxx>]

Gregory;

Thank you very much for a both informative and entertaining run down on a
subject that I have found eye-crossingly confusing to research!

Will be embarking on the construction of my coils and spark gap tomorrow, so
hopefully I will be posting results. I constructed a jacobs ladder to
demonstrate my new obit and managed to give myself a good shock through a
housebrick I was using to hold the antennae up. I think there must have been
moisture in the brick - needless to say marigolds and a healthy dollop of
safety awareness will be applied from now on!

I'll be sure to check your site,

-Matt

On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 11:26 PM, G Hunter <dogbrain_39560@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi Matt,
>
> There's a lot of mythology out there concerning bottle capacitors.  Most of
> it conflicts so badly with my own experience that I can only conclude they
> are tall tales.  For example:
>
> 1)  Beer bottles quickly overheat in Tesla coil service and often crack.
>
> A)  I've built and used over 100 beer and wine bottle caps, and I NEVER had
> one fail in Tesla coil service, even at powers of up to 7200VA and at NST
> voltages of up to 15kvac.  I've also never had one warm up above room
> temperature.  Never had a leak either--not a drop.
>
> 2)  Bottle caps are lossy and inefficient, and shorten your sparks.
>
> A)  I won't argue with this one.  I've not measured it myself, but expert
> coilers assure me that plastic film pulse caps outperform glass caps by a
> mile and a half.  I have no reason to doubt them.  It may depend on what
> kind of bottles are used, as not all glass is created equal.  No doubt some
> formulations of glass have better RF properties than others.  Cap bank
> configuration probably matters too.  A large number of small bottles wired
> in parallel is probably more efficient than a few large ones.  Having said
> all that, I've been very satisfied with the sparks I generated on a
> beer-bottle budget!  Giving up a couple of inches of spark length to save
> L50-L100 on capacitors seems like a pretty good deal.
>
> 3) Bottle caps sometimes burst while the Tesla coil is running.  In fact,
> one time a bottle cap exploded with so much force, it compressed the water
> inside it to the fusion temperature of Hydrogen.  The resulting nuclear
> explosion vaporized the poor kid who built the Tesla coil, and he got a big,
> fat "F" on his science project!
>
> A)  OK, I just made that one up.  But some of the bottle cap stories I've
> read are nearly that silly.
>
> Matt, I'm guilty of making a short story long, so let me close with this
> bit of advice.  If you want to make salt water caps, stick with plain old
> NaCl, and clear glass containers.  Table salt may not be the last word in
> conductive electrolytes, but it is cheap and non-toxic.  Likewise, green and
> brown bottles are pigmented with...what?  I don't know!  The dye could be
> metallic salts!  Do you really want unknown compounds of Iron or other
> metals mixed in with the glass?  Stick with water-clear glass and avoid the
> whole issue.  For mind-numbing text and grainy visuals on salt water bottle
> caps, visit my site at:
>
> http://myweb.cableone.net/grcarhunter/
>
> Cheers,
>
> Gregory R. Hunter
>
>
>
> --- On Thu, 12/4/08, Matt <tonedeafmessiah@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > From: Matt <tonedeafmessiah@xxxxxxxxx>
> > Subject: Re: [TCML] TC Newbie
> > To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Date: Thursday, December 4, 2008, 11:26 AM
> > Hello again, I'm back
> >
> > Just received, my transformer - I don't really feel
> > like shelling out the
> > money for high voltage caps (or several lower voltage ones)
> > though. I was
> > thinking of making a 'beer bottle' salt water cap.
> > The transformer delivers
> > 2x 7.5kv at 40mA. It is a danfoss oil burner transformer. I
> > was wondering if
> > anyone could provide me with some advice - especially as I
> > have heard that
> > salt water capacitors can tend to explode when things go
> > wrong...
> >
> >  All input and help is valued and appreciated
> >
> > Thanks a lot,
> >
> > -Matt
>
>
>
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