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Re: Capacitors



Original poster: "Bill Parn by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <parn-at-starpower-dot-net>

Hi Tim,

As you have heard and I will testify to as well the MMC is much more compact
and much easier to work with.  Also safer with the inexpensive bleed
resistors in place.
Allows for adjusting the capacitance by manipulating strings in series and
parallel.
Lots of fun to experiment with.

However with that said I still have fun building homemade HV caps.  I have
used alum
flashing as you are thinking about, however alum foil is much easier to work
with
and gets the same job done.  I now use the heavy duty thicker alum foil.
Less prone
to tearing when hooking everything up.  You will need to sand the burrs down
on the
alum flashing, or at a minimum hammer then out.  To do the job right does
take time
a lot more than building the MMC.

Just for fun I have rolled little 10nf +- with only 6 mil and no oil.  Takes
less than
10 minutes.  I have run these for up to a few minutes at a time on 9kv-at-30ma
before
they gave up.  :)

I used 60 mil on my flat plate oil cap.  10 layers of 6 mil.  90 mil seems
to be a
better number to go with since you are charging with 15KV.  I use my 60 mil
one
for 12KV DC charging with out problems, however I have to admit I prefer the
MMCs with the bleed resistors.  Still bugs me a little to discharge the flat
plate
cap after a run, and the possibility of forgetting to do so when tuning.  I
discharge
mine through a cup of water to lessen the loud pop.  You will hear the H20
atoms
seperating before you even completely touch the wires together. :)

William


----- Original Message -----
From: Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2000 9:57 PM
Subject: Capacitors


> Original poster: "Tim by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<warpath-at-wtp-dot-net>
>
> Hi to All, My name is Tim Walrath. I am endeavoring to build my first
> Tesla Coil. I have purchased a 15000 volt neon sign transformer that
> puts out 450VA at 30MA. I am wanting to build my own capacitors. I am
> planning on using LDPE sheets at 6mil thickness and aluminun roof
> flashing for the conductor plates. I am purchasing some polypropylene to
> make the cases and plexiglass to make the tops. I am having trouble
> figuring out how to figure the capacitance needed for the caps- that is
> how much LDPE to use between each conductor plate. Math never was my
> best subject but I do want to be able to figure this out. Any help would
> be appreciated. Thanks, Tim
>
>
>