RE: barium titanate doorknob caps

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-compaq-dot-com>

Hi Al:

Please don't cast me as a sinister conspitator.  My goal was not to
"outlaw" or stiffle discussion on new or different means of making
capacitors, but simply to point out that the NUMEROUS posts on the topic
of whether Barium is poisonous had just been rehashing the same
speculation, over and over.  I suggested ending the thread not because I
viewed ceramic caps as inferior, but because the specific discussion of
whether barium was poisonous was going nowhere useful.  I suggested no
action on any other aspect of ceramic cap threads.

Beyond that, I must also admit to being highly skeptical about the
feasibility of a DIY ceramic cap.  I suspect that attempting to build
one's own ceramic caps in a microwave oven out of red clay that is dug
up from your back yard, is not likely to pan out.  There is a very good
reason that new, commercial Bariusm Titanite caps cost hundreds of
dollars each.  The equipment needed to make such devices is surely
specialized and expensive, manufacturing tolerances must be very tight,
material composition must be very pure, etc.  What makes you think there
is Barium Titanite in your red clay?  You must live in a very toxic
neighborhood.

This List is read by people of all levels of experience.  I am concerned
when I see well-meaning people suggesting things that I believe may be a
waste of other's time and money.  This is why I suggest MMC's over
poly/Al caps.  I have built both and there is no doubt which is less
work, more durable, cheaper, neater, and more compact.  I think the List
benefits from such direct experience more-so than from idle speculation.
But both are welcome and no one is outlawing anything.

You are quite welcome by me to relate your ceramic cap exploits to the
List.  I just may get a little cranky if the same thing is rehashed in
twenty posts.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA



Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<uncadoc-at-juno-dot-com>

Hello Gary and Moderator.  Gee whiz, I thought that trying to fabricate
ones own capacitors was a real winner for the Tesla list.  Regardless of
the composition of the capacitor.  Did you cut folks off when they were
fabricating caps of aluminum and plastic? Or any other versions of home
brewed caps???    Hey, I am just trying to learn something here, and the
barium caps, and my own attempt to fabricate a home brew version of it
have now been cut off???  Why?   It is good to get feedback from list
members on the hows and whys and possible dangers of trying to fabricate
a homebrew cap.   I consider this valuable input, since list members are
applying their expertise to the idea of manufacturing ones own clay and
conductive plate cap.   And now you cut the thread just because you and
Gary Et Al are convinced that there can be no better cap than your
MMC's?
 My idea was to condense and nuke/bake a red clay/copper type of cap on
a
larger scale, (like a small cookie sheet size)....Sorry to see that you
have closed your minds to an entirely different way of building your own
caps.  The chemical warnings posted by the list members are no different
than a aluminum dust warning when fabricating a cap from aluminum.  It
would appear that you are afraid of or do not understand the
ceramic/glass microwave fusion process,  for if you did, you would not
have cut this thread off.  Look, Maybe I am wrong in my idea about
capacitor fusion, but that should not let you eliminate others that may
have some knowledge of glass/ceramic fusion from posting to the list. 
Hey, look , a lot of members of the list post about using microwave
tranny's for their coils.  So should homebrewed microwaved clay
capacitors be outlawed???? You are doing yourself a great disservice.  
Be not in such a hurry to cut off a thread, for it may have some value
in
a way that is yet to be understood.   Or is this list to be interrupted
on the whim of one member, when others may see a greater value on
continuation of the thread?????     And I now address this to Gary Lau,
why is this thread so tedious???  Probably because it contains no
content
of MMC's is my guess.     Al.  

On Sun, 15 Apr 2001 19:50:22 -0600 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
writes:
> Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz 
> <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-compaq-dot-com>
> 
> Can we just summarize by saying "don't eat your capacitors", and 
> please
> end this very tedious thread?!
> 
> Gary Lau
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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