RE: Stupid Capacitors!

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

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

Could you please elaborate on just how your failed cap was built?  This
would help others not make the same mistake, and help identify the
boundaries for safe MMC operation.  What kind of caps did you use, what
were the ratings, how many in series and how many strings, what kind of
power supply/NST, and how wide is your gap?  

I DON'T recommend building PE caps, I've made two and both failed after a
very short life.  And a .1uF PE cap would be huge!

Gary Lau
MA, USA

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com] 
Sent:	Friday, January 25, 2002 10:16 AM
To:	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject:	Stupid Capacitors!

Original poster: "Marry Krutsch by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<u236-at-earthlink-dot-net>

Hi everyone.

	Well, my MMC bank just failed catastrophicaly (burst into flames) for
the 5th time, and my wooden primary form just carbon tracked.  I have
about 5 min. total run time on my coil, so this is going to get
expensive pretty soon!  All but one cap failed open circuit, so the lead
to plate junctions must not be good enough.  I don't have enough $$$ for
a Geek MMC, so I'll probably build a plate cap.  It's going to be big,
since I need 0.1 uF.  I can get PE sheet rather cheaply.  Which is best,
high or low density PE?  Any suggestions?

Now working feverishly,
	Winston