Re: Capacitor Help Needed

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: robert heidlebaugh <rheidlebaugh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Wilson: The term "cheep" is the varried point. The salt water capacitor is
the least expensive but bulkey. I use aluminum flashine roled with 12 layers
of 4 mil bag stock with good service . The oil bath is bulkey but managable.
I use 1" conductor straps and pop rivits. My students make smaller
capacitors usimg folded straps and coco cans to hold oil. The cost is labor
and time so a moderate cost is there. The MMC capacitor array is about $100
t0 $150. Manufactured capacitors have no cost limit but surplus units can be
obtained.
      Robert   H
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> From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 17:59:40 -0600
> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Capacitor Help Needed
> Resent-From: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Resent-Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 18:03:06 -0600 (MDT)
>
> 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?
>
>