Re: DArN CAPACITORS!

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

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

In a message dated 1/31/01 4:17:15 PM Pacific Standard Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes:

<< Subj:     DArN CAPACITORS!
 Date:  1/31/01 4:17:15 PM Pacific Standard Time
 From:  tesla-at-pupman-dot-com (Tesla list)
 To:    tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 
 Original poster: "Drew Murray by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" 
<drewallmighty-at-hotmail-dot-com>
 
 OK people,
 I'm sick of getting dry, crusty, stinging, bleeding hands from salt water 
 caps. Absolutely sick of it. As far as i'm concerned, salt water caps made 
 with beer bottles or most other thick glass bottles suck. I read about how 
 lossy they are and what a mess they are when you pour motor oil over them to 
 suppress corona discharge. From my experiences with tesla coil caps, two 
 liter pop bottles filled with brine and covered with tin foil are the best. 
 However, they are not as durable as glass caps are as the plastic bottle 
 will break down easily if the voltage output of the transformer is too much. 
 On one of these caps, i drew a 3-4 inch snapping white spark off of the 
 electrode on the neck of the bottle. I did this with a 10000v 23ma oil 
 burner igniter. Glass bottle caps barely made a 1 inch spark.
 I need your help!
 I want a bigger transformer, and i need more info on POTENTIAL TRANSFORMERS. 
 ie: How big? How are they different from distribution XFMRs (Pole Pigs)
 If I were wanting to build a MMC, where would I get the caps at a good 
 price. I am only a high school student hoping to enter my tesla coil in a 
 science fair this march. It has to be done this march. Help , I need your 
 advice.
                                                     Up here in Canada,
                                                      Drew Murray
 Drew,

If it is a small coil, needing low values of capacitance, you might check 
with Dr. Resonance on this list.  I bought some mica transmitting caps from 
him that I use with my 3" coil producing 24" sparks with .008 ufd of 
capacitance and two 12 kv 30 ma transformers.  Terry is your best bet for mmc 
caps.  He is providing a great service to all of those needing only a 
relatively small number of caps by buying in quantity and stocking them for 
us.

Ed Sonderman