Re: Maxwell High Voltage Capacitors

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com>

I'm not trying to be a smart***, but aren't these questions you should have
asked *BEFORE* buying them ? ? ?

Although these capacitors will no doubt work for your coil, they are only
rated at 1PPS (pulse per second) being the 31xxxx series.  You really wanted
to get the
37xxxx series Maxwell's which are rated at 60PPS.  A much better capacitor
for tesla coil use.  Also, 0.03uF is a bit large for a 12kV or 15kV 60mA for
resonant sizing.
However, 0.03uF will work if you have a 15kV, 60mA coil running LTR (larger
than resonant) sizing.  You could also series connect the capacitors for
0.015uF.

Did you get ripped?  Well $152.00 for two of these is much cheaper than it
would be to buy through an official commercial surplus store, but these
capacitors usually go for much
much cheaper on ebay, especially when they are 31xxxx series.  Every so
often you'll see the 0.035uF, 35kV 37xxxx series Maxwell Capacitors on ebay
for about $50.00 each.  Both
alltronics and one other person sells these.  These would have been a much
better capacitor.  Plus they are smaller too.

The Captain

 > I picked up 2 Maxwell High Voltage Capacitors off Ebay this
 > morning.  They're rated at 0.03 microfarad and 45kV.  Assuming they are
 > fully operational, will these be sufficient caps for a coil (2 ft tall
 > secondary) running on a 12 or 15kV neon transformer?
 >
 > Here's a link to the
 > caps:
 >
<http://cgi.ebay-dot-com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2536648936&category=4662
&rd=1>http://cgi.ebay-dot-com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2536648936&category
=4662&rd=1
 >
 > Did I get ripped on these?
 >
 > Thanks!
 > Jack
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >