Re: Perfecting my final design...

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Original poster: "Chris Rutherford" <chris1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

I can't answer your question, but I'm slowly building/designing my first 
Tesla coil, unfortunately I *may* have just waited about $200 on some 
capacitors that may be useless.  I purchased 10 * 2500V 1.3uF microwave 
capacitors, they charge up nicely and produce a nice crack when discharged, 
except when thinking about their make up (liquid filled) and their 50Hz 
frequency rating, when I start to pulse them in the Khz range they may 
start to heat up due to losses etc.  Can anyone advise?  If they're no good 
as high voltage pulse capacitors would they be any good in a voltage 
multiplier circuit to drive a pulse capacitor? Or should I just use 4 * 4KV 
transformers with secondary in series??  Any ideas what I can do with 10 * 
2500V 1.3uF 50Hz capacitors in relation to making a Tesla coil??

Thanks

Christopher

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 7:02 PM
Subject: Re: Perfecting my final design...


> Original poster: "Adam R." <arabraxas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
> I'd like to go with a large cap but I just expanded it! I am using the CD 
> caps (2000v .15uF) and have two strings of 15 for a .02uF cap bank 
> total...it does not look like I can easily get some more of those caps 
> (cheaply).
>
> Here are the results of the spread sheet, the inductance is much higher 
> than I thought.
>
> Diameter of tubing 0.25
> separation of turns 0.25
> Number of turns per spiral 10
> Radius inner turn 4
> Separation of spirals 2
> length     TOTAL 2.5
> n            TOTAL 100
> L            TOTAL 3003.5
>
> Also, shouldn't the two spirals be wound in opposite directions so the 
> magnetic field matches?
>
> I'm worried working with the acrylic: I don't have special bits to drill 
> with it or saw it so I hope when drilling it won't crack and its only 1/4" 
> thick. To hold the copper tubing in I'm using PE cutting board strips. How 
> can I bolt the PE down? I'm guessing just extand 1/8" nylon bolts on the 
> strips.
>
> The distances btw the two coils will be adjustable so I can experiment 
> differing setups.
>
> Even just using two layers of 5 turns (6 or even 6.5"dia center) of .25" 
> Cu tubing spaced .25" apart (hopefully enough room to put 1/8" bolts?) 
> sounds like it'd work (with the .02uF cap). I'm just worried about using 
> thin bolts (1/8") but then that'd lower the risk of fracturing the 
> acrylic. (However, the center holes for the secondary are 1/4")....so 
> should I shoot for 5 turns? I might even be able to make a crappy mock 
> setup and test it with my L meter.