Re: Doorknob caps okay for tesla coil???

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

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Jonathan Peakall by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jpeakall-at-madlabs.info>
> 
> Dan,
> 
> Haven't used any Cera-Mite caps, but my experience with doorknob caps in TC
> service is they get warm, detune and eventually blow. You can get away with
> short runs, but it seems like sooner or later they go. I'd use those caps
> for a Marx generator or something.
> 
> Jonathan Peakall

	I go along with that; I use them here with good results, subject to the
limitations above.  If allowed to get too hot they short, but that means
they're quite warm to the touch.  If you keep them cool by limiting the
running time they work fine, and the low series resistance more than
compensates for the dielectric hysterisis loss.  I don't know whether
cooling in oil would extend the safe run time, but someone oughta try
it, as these things are nice and compact and relatively cheap.  No
competition for better capacitors, but good for starting out.

Ed