Re: Commercial Caps for Tesla Applications

[Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

In a message dated 8/16/00 6:54:12 PM Pacific Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes:

<< There was actually more to the problem than just that.  Some of the caps
 were defective in the first place and blew up.  Apparently they were willing
 to work with the people who had the problems until one or two people started
 threatening them with legal action and being rather unpleasant.  This was
 probably the genesis of their policy.
 
 Personally, I wasn't too awfully impressed with the quality of the caps.  I
 had two blow up (loud, like 1/2 an M-80).  I wasn't running them too hard I
 thought.  I was running them about 500bps at 14,400 volts.  I was under the
 impression that the TC caps were designed for Tesla Coil service and that
 they were therefore capable of handling the resulting resonant rise, etc.
 If I remember correctly, I even had a safety gap across them.  Oh, the other
 thing is that they were cylindrical and thus resistant to a fair amount of
 pressure.  There was no air space in them, so when they blew, they really
 blew.  The home made rolled cap that I toasted had a bunch of air space at
 the top, and when it went, it was just quiet gurgling.
 
 Chip
  >>

Chip,

My two C.P. caps are still running.  I also had two fail.  One opend 
internally and one minor explosion that puked oil all over everything.  They 
replaced one under warranty.  I do think I overvolted mine with a 60 hz 
primary resonance problem and no safety gap across the cap or the rotary.  In 
retrospect, it was kind of them to replace it for no charge.

Ed Sonderman