Re: Blown Cap

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Blown Cap
From: Malcolm Watts <MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nz>
Date: Wed, 29 May 1996 09:27:54 +1200

Hi to all long suffering cap builders (me included):
    A few observations : it took over a month for all visible bubbles 
to work their way out of my plate cap. Before that, I had to haul it
out of the oil and loosen the ties so the oil could penetrate better.
Also, I left it lying on its sides and upside down turning it every 
day or so to help float the bubbles out.  The cap seems fine now, but 
I haven't really thrashed it yet.
    Secondly, I think results will be much more satisfactory if a
large number of thin films are used for the dielectric. A single 
defect in one thick film can ruin hours of work. Also, the dielectric
strength/thickness goes up as the film gets thinner so lots of thin
film should theoretically hold up much better than one thick one.
    Although building caps is an arduous and often unrewarding task, 
I'm keen to persist just to see what standard they can be built to.

Malcolm