Hi---Your capacitor may not have a high enough voltage rating. Using a 5 kV NST, the cap will see 5 x SQRT(2) voltage in each polarity, which is about 15 kV peak-to-peak. The voltage rating of the cap should equal the peak-to-peak voltage plus a safety factor, so 20 kV would be a good rating.
The other disadvantage of a poly cap is that a Leyden jar is much cooler (temperature as well as asthetic). My coil ran for a long time on 18 one-gallon Leyden jars. I finally went to a Maxwell cap because it was much more compact. But it doesn't have that cheery lavender glow. I just noticed that you said "polyester." You should use polypropylene, which has a much better loss factor.
Good luck--- Carl
Hi,I built a TESLA COIL with 5kv 30ma nst.Primary coil made with 4mm copper tube with 10 turns secondary made with 2inch PVC pipe.Winding height 10.2inch(0.315mm enameled copper wire used) also made Capacitor bank with 2kv 0.15uF polyester film capacitor.But the problem is my Capacitor burnt several times but the coil works with LEYDEN JAR capacitor.Why the capacitor burning?????? Please Help Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! _______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
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