RE: Capacitor Help Needed

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Jonathan Peakall" <jpeakall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Iv'e had good experience with both the bucket cap and foil wrapped bottles.
The bucket is a little more reliable, and the bottles/tinfoil a little
lighter and less messy to fix. Both work fine for low cost caps, but my MMC
outperforms them both. However, pop a bottle and all you have to do is drink
another beer...

I use the foil bottles for my little TC I take to school, shows the
principal better than the bucket cap or MMC.

Jonathan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 10:11 AM
> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: Capacitor Help Needed
>
>
> Original poster: "Rich" <rdjmgmt@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> I use the GEEEK Group bucket cap set up and have had no problem with it
> for my 30ma 15kv NST coil. I use plastic buckets that had kitty litter
> in them , Corona beer bottles , copper wire bottle to bottle , salt
> water inside and out ,a little mineral oil on top, no foil and no
> problems.
>
> Rich
>
> Subject: RE: Capacitor Help Needed
>
>
>
>
> Original poster: "Wilson Ng" <metalstorm2002@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>
>     Hello list members.
>
>        I have had bad experience with my capacitors. My first one that
> worked okay with my tesla coil was a jellyroll cap made from plastic
> baggies and metal foil tape. It works well up to about 3 kv. Beyond
> that, there will be smoke and popping sounds. Adding additional baggies
> for the dielectric decreased the capacitance dramatically. Later I tried
> MMCs with a string of 30 200v 2uf metalized polyester
> capacitors. It was just
> a test to see if the setup works. After several seconds, I smelled smoke
> even though the test voltage was only 3kv! I've also tried foil wrapped
> bottle caps but it was messy and one bottle cracked. UGGHH!
>
>        After sorting a while through the pupman archives, I was unable to
> find anything other than glass bottle caps, MMCs, and homemade plate
> caps. These caps have downsides:
>
>         MMCs                 - expensive
>         bottle caps          - messy and lossy
>         plastic/plate caps  - a pain in the ass to make and not very
>                                    reliable
>         rolled caps           -   not reliable
>         Microwave cap MMC   - possibility of explosion
>
> My question is, is there another way to make a reliable,
> cheap, and effective cap without breaking my bank?
>
>
>
>