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Re: bottle caps

>I am going to make a bottle capacitor, just for fun..Maybe I need another
>hobby...? :)

No but I would advise some serious therapy......perhaps Shock treatments?
See below

>Anyway, are all 6 bottles in parallel in the average cap? I think I've seen
>several different ways, but I am looking for as close to .006 as possible.
>Any advice?
>
>thanks!
>
>Chris Walton


The Geek Group Salt Water Bucket Capacitor of Science (da da da daaaa)

1. Beg, Borrow, or Steal the following.....
   1. 5 Gal HDPE white bucket. IT MUST BE WHITE!!!!! Black is conductive! It 
is best to use a new bucket with a "water tight" lid.
   2. 4 quarts of synthetic motor oil. We used Quaker State, but your tastes 
may vary.
   3. 12 long-necked "Corona" (get it?) beer bottles. La Carvesa Mas Fina!
   4. 4Lbs of Morton salt (we used standard Iodised salt, any type will 
work, even Epsom salts.
   5. 1 fresh lime and a small pareing knife.
   6. a few friends over age 21.
   7. 2 brass and plastic 5 way binding posts, panel mount. Preferably Red. 
(It's prettey)
   8. bottle opener
   9. Capacitance meter (our VOM has one built in)
  10. 1 free afternoon
  11. 25 feet of 10 AWG bare copper wire

Alright, now you have all the required things, total cost should be well 
under $50US, and under $20 if you scrounge a bit.

2. Empty the beer bottles. We suggest a mixture of 8 drops of lime juice per 
bottle for best results. Remember to do ALL your calculations beforehand 
though. NEVER drink and derive!

3. wash the bottles out with hot water, rinse them well.

4. Place the bottles in the bucket. They should fit with a little bit of 
room. Enough to jostle about, but not enough to tip. Do not worry about 
space between the bottles.

5. Make your salt water by filling a saucepan on the stove, heating, and 
slowly stirring in salt untill the water will hold no more.
The water only has to be warm, not boiling. If you pour boiling water over 
your bottles you will thermal shock the glass and they will shatter.

6. Fill the bucket/bottles to just below the neck. Fill the bottles and the 
bucket space around the bottles to the same level.

7. fill the necks of the bottles with oil to just under the mouthpiece. Then 
put an inch of oil (yes, this is overkill) on the water around the bottles. 
With an inch of oil your corona losses should be VERY low.

8. Place "U" shaped pieces of wire connecting all the bottles. We connected 
each bottle to each one next to it though this is probably overkill.

9. Mount your 2 binding-posts to the lid of your bucket (or 1 to the lid and 
1 on the side). Connect 1 to a wire inside a bottle, and the other one to a 
wire sitting inside the water jacket.

10. To set your desired capacitance, simply add or remove some of the "U" 
interconnects between bottles. With all 12 bottles connected we have .012uF

THE RUB!

Your cap will take 3 days to stabilise! When you first build you cap expect 
.018uF or so, this will drop a bit in the first week to .012 as the oil 
absorbs a bit of the water. (You will also see the levels drop in the 
bottles a small bit).

Though you won't see it in the bucket, salt will precipitate to the bottom, 
and you will also get mold growing in the cap. Neither of these will affect 
performance.

Safety Note:
It's fine to drink the beer (we actually dumped ours down the sink). But if 
you are under the influance of ANYTHING then don't play with High Voltage. 
If you think that spilling the cap can be messey, you should see what a NST, 
or especially a Pig can do to you. **
Have fun, and don't get dead.

Chris Boden
The Geek Group
www.geekgroup-dot-org

** A few other details were removed by the moderator ;-)

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