Saltwater improvements (Attn: Begginers)

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Original poster: "Mike Novak by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <acmnovak-at-msn-dot-com>


Hello All,

I though I'd share a small (but very usefull) bit of info regaurding
building saltwater caps. This may be of particular interest to begginers or
those on a tight budget.
The two problems I've had with saltwater caps are: 1.) Messy!!! and
2.)Weight/Size... I can't do much about the weight/size issue, but I can
offer tips and improvements on making saltwater caps more user friendly.
To reduce overall weight and size, choose a bottle that has a long, slender
neck, as well as a relatively small (<1L) capacity. Having many small caps
is much more space/cost/weight efficient than having one really huge cap.
To eliminate the largest part of the mess, and make transportation/storage
easier, I reccomend using rubber stoppers to seal the tops. Insert a
galvanized steel or aluminum screw through the top of a pre-drilled cap,
then place a stopper in the neck of your bottle and drill the screw in
without pre-drilling. Since saltwater caps generally don't get too warm,
this sealed feature doesn't decrease their safety factor much.
Using Aluminum tape on the exterior surface increases capacitance slightly
and makes the much neater looking as well.
Also, make sure to put some sort of padding material in between caps when
they are stacked on their side. I lost six caps by not doing so on my first
coil.
The stopper improvement is, IMHO, the best idea because it allows one to sit
the bottles on their side, which makes a cost-effective enclosure MUCH
smaller.

Good Luck!

-Mike Novak


*Note: I realize MMCs are a far better choice, but for those who can't find
a dime for caps, this will work just fine.