Re: Good Caps for Tesla Coiling

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

Original poster: "robert & june heidlebaugh by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <rheidlebaugh-at-desertgate-dot-com>

Steve: two conditions burn out capacitors. The most apparent is over voltage
breaking down the dialectric between the plates. A less apparent cause is
over current. My discharge power is over 1Meg Watt peak. Not average power.
My peak surge current is over 400 amps not milli amps. Any capacitor
constructed of film or with small area connections will fail. That is why
capacitor assemblies are made of series and parallel connections. Series for
voltage and parallel for current. The tapped coil is to tune the frequency.
   Robert  H
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 > From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 > Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 18:12:20 -0700
 > To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 > Subject: Re: Good Caps for Tesla Coiling
 > Resent-From: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 > Resent-Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 18:19:25 -0700
 >
 > Original poster: "Steven Ward by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
 > <srward16-at-hotmail-dot-com>
 >
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 >> From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 >> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 >> Subject: Re: Good Caps for Tesla Coiling
 >> Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 12:55:00 -0700
 >>
 >> Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>
 >
 >> The GE42L's are all metal film.  They are pretty tough, but we still see
 >> problems like this:
 >>
 >> http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/Pb280016.jpg
 >>
 >> Cheers,
 >>
 >> Terry
 >
 > Now this has been bugging me for some time now.  Why is it that the plates
 > actually BURN?  I had these caps before with this problem.  Now what would
 > happen if you over currented these at a lower voltage?  It was my
 > understanding that the current was destroying the 42ls.  But would that
 > actually happen at say 500v or whatever they are rated in AC?  So this
 > leads to my next point,  what if there are enough of them in series so that
 > there is only the rated AC voltage across them?  Is there than ANY reason
 > for them to fail?  Somehow i cant see lower voltages doing this to a
 > cap.  Maybe it would disconnect and that would be the end of it, becuase
 > the low voltage can arc across the break?  Just curious as i still have a
 > LOT of .68uf 1200v caps.
 >
 > Steve Ward.
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