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Capacitors

 * Carbons Sent to: usa-tesla-at-usa-dot-net

Quoting "James M. Watson" <oldradio-at-cheney-dot-net>:

> Greetings Richard,

> I got a capacitor from a friend today that I initially thought
> might work in my Tesla coil.  It is one of the types that power
> companies use. I was disappointed when I talked to a second 
> (Ken Dunn) friend and he said that it wouldn't work.  He said 
> that the problem is that there is an internal resistance that 
> is meant to discharge the capacitor, and that this is what 
> makes it useless for Tesla coils.  Ken added that it might work
> if I had a transformer that could deliver a great deal of 
> power.

If it is useless, and it belongs to you, cut it open with an eye
on rewiring the guts. Frequently heavy commercial/utility
capacitors can be dissassembled, rewired, and repotted back in
oil in a tupperware type container. 

I have a friend who converted a plastic/Al/oil 4800 volt power
factor correction capacitor to Tesla use. He opened the can with
a dremel tool, rewired the parallel stacks into series stacks,
and closed the can back up using a top from a Tupperware cereal
canister, the new terminals came up through holes punched in the
plastic lid. Dave Sharp from T.C.B.O.R. has done almost the exact
same thing, only he removed the "guts" and submerged them back in
oil in separate Rubbermade containers. 

I heard a story about a guy who glommed on an inoperable 1950's
vintage radio jammer that saw service in Korea. The oscillator
sections consisted of Mil-Spec mica caps and various inductors
submerged in heavy PCBs. Stripping and washing the unit down
resulted in five beautiful mica caps that would run hundreds, if
not thousands, of dollars today. Each capacitor was described as
being about the size of a big city phone book.

Richard Quick


... If all else fails... Throw another megavolt across it!
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12