Re: Help with my rotary gap (and other tuning problems).....

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx>

"Well, I just bought a 4uF AC cap for 11$...I don'l feel like getting
another one (the place is a half hour away). Could I adjust the
inductor somehow?

Actually, I have two DC electrolytes one 47uF and one 4uF, putting
them will give around 4.5 (and adjust the polarization, they should
work for AC)...would this be enough?

Or, should I just accept it and get a 5uF cap?"

	That seems like a horrific price for the capacitor, but I don't know
your options and how much of a hurry you were in.  You can do much
better mail order from a number of places (you have to factor in the
dual costs of shipping and waiting for delivery).  I use C&H Sales a lot
(they have a web site with complete and searchable listing of parts),
but they happen to be only about 10 minutes drive from where I am.

	More importantly, you can't use electrolytic capacitors as you
suggest.  (Actually you can - after all they're yours - but it won't be
long before the smoke comes out and they are NG.) If the values were
equal putting them in series with (+ to +) or (- to -) would give you a
capacitor suitable for very intermittent usage, but nothing you could
leave in operation.

Ed