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Re: [TCML] TC Newbie



Oh, and quickly - is there any way of knowing how many caps of what size to
make to deal with my transformer?

On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 12:12 AM, Matt <tonedeafmessiah@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Gregory;
>
> Thank you very much for a both informative and entertaining run down on a
> subject that I have found eye-crossingly confusing to research!
>
> Will be embarking on the construction of my coils and spark gap tomorrow,
> so hopefully I will be posting results. I constructed a jacobs ladder to
> demonstrate my new obit and managed to give myself a good shock through a
> housebrick I was using to hold the antennae up. I think there must have been
> moisture in the brick - needless to say marigolds and a healthy dollop of
> safety awareness will be applied from now on!
>
> I'll be sure to check your site,
>
> -Matt
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 11:26 PM, G Hunter <dogbrain_39560@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>> Hi Matt,
>>
>> There's a lot of mythology out there concerning bottle capacitors.  Most
>> of it conflicts so badly with my own experience that I can only conclude
>> they are tall tales.  For example:
>>
>> 1)  Beer bottles quickly overheat in Tesla coil service and often crack.
>>
>> A)  I've built and used over 100 beer and wine bottle caps, and I NEVER
>> had one fail in Tesla coil service, even at powers of up to 7200VA and at
>> NST voltages of up to 15kvac.  I've also never had one warm up above room
>> temperature.  Never had a leak either--not a drop.
>>
>> 2)  Bottle caps are lossy and inefficient, and shorten your sparks.
>>
>> A)  I won't argue with this one.  I've not measured it myself, but expert
>> coilers assure me that plastic film pulse caps outperform glass caps by a
>> mile and a half.  I have no reason to doubt them.  It may depend on what
>> kind of bottles are used, as not all glass is created equal.  No doubt some
>> formulations of glass have better RF properties than others.  Cap bank
>> configuration probably matters too.  A large number of small bottles wired
>> in parallel is probably more efficient than a few large ones.  Having said
>> all that, I've been very satisfied with the sparks I generated on a
>> beer-bottle budget!  Giving up a couple of inches of spark length to save
>> L50-L100 on capacitors seems like a pretty good deal.
>>
>> 3) Bottle caps sometimes burst while the Tesla coil is running.  In fact,
>> one time a bottle cap exploded with so much force, it compressed the water
>> inside it to the fusion temperature of Hydrogen.  The resulting nuclear
>> explosion vaporized the poor kid who built the Tesla coil, and he got a big,
>> fat "F" on his science project!
>>
>> A)  OK, I just made that one up.  But some of the bottle cap stories I've
>> read are nearly that silly.
>>
>> Matt, I'm guilty of making a short story long, so let me close with this
>> bit of advice.  If you want to make salt water caps, stick with plain old
>> NaCl, and clear glass containers.  Table salt may not be the last word in
>> conductive electrolytes, but it is cheap and non-toxic.  Likewise, green and
>> brown bottles are pigmented with...what?  I don't know!  The dye could be
>> metallic salts!  Do you really want unknown compounds of Iron or other
>> metals mixed in with the glass?  Stick with water-clear glass and avoid the
>> whole issue.  For mind-numbing text and grainy visuals on salt water bottle
>> caps, visit my site at:
>>
>> http://myweb.cableone.net/grcarhunter/
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Gregory R. Hunter
>>
>>
>>
>> --- On Thu, 12/4/08, Matt <tonedeafmessiah@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> > From: Matt <tonedeafmessiah@xxxxxxxxx>
>> > Subject: Re: [TCML] TC Newbie
>> > To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> > Date: Thursday, December 4, 2008, 11:26 AM
>> > Hello again, I'm back
>> >
>> > Just received, my transformer - I don't really feel
>> > like shelling out the
>> > money for high voltage caps (or several lower voltage ones)
>> > though. I was
>> > thinking of making a 'beer bottle' salt water cap.
>> > The transformer delivers
>> > 2x 7.5kv at 40mA. It is a danfoss oil burner transformer. I
>> > was wondering if
>> > anyone could provide me with some advice - especially as I
>> > have heard that
>> > salt water capacitors can tend to explode when things go
>> > wrong...
>> >
>> >  All input and help is valued and appreciated
>> >
>> > Thanks a lot,
>> >
>> > -Matt
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
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