Re: Rolled cap hell

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

Original poster: "Dr. Resonance" <resonance-at-jvlnet-dot-com> 


Were you wearing rubber gloves when you handled your dielectric?  Many
failures can be attributed to using bare hands to handle the dielectric ---
hands that contain a lot of sodium salts in the skin oil --- highly
conductive.  Produces tracking near the edges of the dielectric.

Few experimenters pay attention to this small item but it's another straw
that can break the camel's back.

To roll tight, select a wood dowel and clamp it between a vice and a strong
clamp.  Roll tight around the dowel and remove the dowel after taping up
your rolled device.

Dr. Resonance

 >
 > well, I attempted to roll my first cap tonight.  It was quite the
 > disapointment.  I have 6mil poly, and I am using the "sandwich" method (2
 > sandwiches with plates wrapped in 8 pieces of 66" long by 14" wide
 > poly).  The cap I am going for is roughly 003uF using 29" or 10" wide roof
 > flashing for the plates (BTW, it is a simple 2 plate cap).  The enclosure
 > of choice is a 3" pvc pipe.  My biggest question is what is the best way
to
 > go about rolling these things up real tight? As a person who has never
 > attempted this before, I approached this thing thinking it would be
 > easy.....boy, was I wrong.  Is there any way of binding the sheets
 > temporarily to wind it, then removing such a device?
 >
 >
 >