RE: Condenser Products Caps

["Kevin, the one with the incredably long email name that takes up a lot of space on this line. Sometimes you have to wonder just how much space you really need in this field anyway. :)" <teslacoil-at-mindspring-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net]

I purchased 2 .1uf caps from them several years ago at the time all this was
going on. The Eng. designed the cap just for my coil. He calculated that it
would run at that 20kv RMS. (28KV peak and the actual rating of the cap was
something like 70-90 kV) from my 15kva pig with my rotary running at 640 BPS
and it would have a lifespan of over 400 hours. I seriously did not think
that I would be running it that long in my lifetime. Think about it, that
would be 800 1/2 hour full power runs! You could beat them more and they
would last less, run only 120bps and they would last much longer. The
standard caps had a standard rating. It was designed specifically for my
coil. They made larger internal busses and a large 1" connection for this
cap also. I do recall him telling me to rotate it once every 9-12 months
because of the air that was mentioned that they leave in there on purpose. I
was very pleased with the company. How many companies would be willing to
custom make a cap just for your coil? The Eng. spent at least several hours
alone talking to me over time and he was a great guy very familiar with what
a Tesla Coil required of a cap. The very same cap with the same ratings, was
twice as much at Maxwell. Like everything, there are yings and yangs of caps
too, not just a couple figures. It was sad to see what had happened. I was
in the middle of making a group buy for the group when that all came down.
You may have known me then as 'DelcoKevin'.

Kevin Conkey



-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2000 1:26 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: RE: Commercial Caps for Tesla Applications


Original poster: "David Trimmell" <davidt-at-pond-dot-net>

Hi, Actually the CP cap I have does have air space, you can here it slosh.
I talked to one of the engineers at CP and they were very specific: The
Tesla coil caps they were selling had been designed for a "STATIC" spark
gap (120 PPS), not a rotary >120 BPS. I have no qualms with CP, they sold a
very economical quality TC cap. A 15KV AC 0.02 uF went for $160, including
shipping (ran mine with a 15 KV 120 mA neon for years till the neon died).
Plastic Capacitors makes TC caps of greater quality, lower series R, etc,
but were much more expensive. Maxwell seems to have the greatest reputation
for pulse caps, and also the highest ticket price. CP's current policy is a
product of our litigious society.

Regards,

David Trimmell
www.ChaoticUniverse-dot-com

At 04:36 PM 8/16/00 , you wrote:
>Original poster: "Atkinson, Chip" <CAtkinson-at-Circadence-dot-com>
>
>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
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
>Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2000 1:13 PM
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Re: Commercial Caps for Tesla Applications
>
>
>Original poster: FutureT-at-aol-dot-com
>
>In a message dated 8/16/00 11:18:26 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
>tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:
>
>> By the way I live about
>>  10-12 miles from Condensor Products Corp.  Unless your a buisness or can
>>  convince them that you know what you are doing they will not sell Tesla
>>  Caps. to private individuals. I have been reviewing some of the old
>>  Tesla List Archives and from what I have read they did sell to private
>>  individuals at one time. I have been messing around with high voltage
>>  for 13 years Im still here and they told me "NO".
>>  Best Regards Jeff KD4LYH
>
>Jeff,
>
>Yes, Condenser products sold to individuals until some of the buyers
>of their caps overvolted them (unknowingly), and blew them up and
>then blamed Condenser products.
>
>Cheers,
>John Freau
>
>
>
>