Re: Use MMC's, not build your own. . .

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

Original poster: "Lee by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <lee-at-ics-ltd-dot-com>

Hi all,
    I am currently building a coil with elementary knowledge and my only
hurdle so far really is the caps.
To build or not to build? If not what is commonly recommended? Whats a good
source?
Thanks in advance..

Lee Coburn.

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Mccauley, Daniel H by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <daniel.h.mccauley-at-lmco-dot-com>
>
> I think with the availability and the ease and proven reliability of MMC's,
> there is no excuse for the beginner to not use MMC type caps.  They're
> cheap, easy to get, and an MMC array is easy to build.  In my opinion,
> building your own caps is not only difficult to obtain great performance or
> reliability, but can present a safety hazard as well, at least for
> beginners.  Oh yeah, they're messy too.  Of course, for a more experienced
> coiler, building your own caps can be satisfying especially if you make the
> rest of your coil "historical like.", but for the beginner, i don't think
> building caps is feasable.
>
> Dan
>
> I'm not sure where you are seeing suitable tesla coil caps on their site.
> They even stress that they do not make to sell tesla coil capacitors.
> Winding your own caps takes lots of time, trial and error. As for their
> surplus, I'm not sure why it's not good enough for their own use. The foil
> may be dinged up and the film may not be a good lot. It's hard to say.
>
> KEN