failed cap

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Original poster: "philip barnes" <luck_phil87-at-hotmail-dot-com> 

Hi.
    i built a cap with 1.6 mm or 64 mil thick PE dielectric and put the 
whole thing in canola oil. It worked great for a while but while i had just 
the cap across the nst ,,, with no tesla coil connected.. to test my new 
mulitgap sparkgap... the PE between 2 of the plates broke down and now it 
blows bubbles and hisses and only produces a spark in the gap if the gap is 
1 mm or 30 mil . Its pretty much had it and must be breaking down at 1 or 2 
thousand volts..IS it more stressfull on a cap with no tesla coil connected 
and is it suprising my cap did not last in my config. The plates are 1.75" 
clearance from each end and 1" along the sides. !6 sheets of makes each layer

Phil


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>Subject: Re: cap
>Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 12:03:57 -0700
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>Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
>
>At 08:08 AM 11/21/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>>Original poster: "RIAA/MPAA's Worst Nightmare" <mike.marcum-at-zoomtown-dot-com>
>>Yup, they work for a few min, and then the leads just fall off from the
>>heat. Question: why don't ceramic "doorknobs" fall apart as well? I've seen
>>those used in SGTC's for whatever reason even though they waste power and
>>are kind of expensive since you need 10 or so in parallel (around $20 for a
>>measly .002 uF -at- 40kv).
>
>They use doorknobs because sometimes you can get them cheap.  My small 
>spark gap TC uses 3 2700pF 40kV doorknobs because they were free (out of a 
>piece of gear that I bought surplus for $10 for the other parts).  They're 
>easy to use, and have lasted so far.
>
>As to why the doorknobs don't fall apart... they're better built than the 
>radial leaded disk capacitors.  Sure, they're not great, but they're still 
>better.
>