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Re: Distilled water as a dielectric?



Original poster: Davetracer@xxxxxxx

In a message dated 6/4/2005 10:33:36 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time, tesla@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
Original poster: Greg Morris <gbmorris@xxxxxxxxx>



> >This is why I still build parallel plates. I can build a 50 nF parallel >plate unit for under $30. Biggest cost is the food storage box. >Assembly time under 2 hrs. > >Mark


Sounds good, Mark. Do you have any images of caps you've built? How do your designs compare to the ones you saw above (mine)?

Greg



  Greg,

I built up a neon-sign based (12kv) coil recently. All I did for capacitors was go over to Home Depot, get some sheets of plastic that were bigger than 18" x 18", then cover them with tinfoil (aluminum foil) to 14" x 14" on each side. I stack them together vertically and of course "hot" sides come together, so I just use that in wiring the caps. I used six or so in the current coil, but am still tuning and fooling with it. The last part was taping them together. I used duct tape. I would have used glass but Home Depot no longer offers it, to my amazement. (And hey, do not be afraid of a piece that is like 20" x 30" ... just expand the foil. A little extra capacitance is not going to hurt.)

A two inch border (x 2, since on both sides) seems adequate. I have had a few "punchthroughs", interestingly, where the foil is taped down. I cured those with epoxy.

Greg, the biggest thing to make a big spark is a toroid on top. It's the difference between a two inch spark and a two foot spark. If you don't have a toroid handy, try a doorknob. Then try two salad bowls end to end, taped together. Then try two *strainers* end to end (I consider this my personal innovation, *grin*). Also note you can make a toroid pretty easily. Try stacking them vertically -- this gets to be wild stuff.

Do not open up you spark gap too wide or your transformer will die. You don't need to. I put two computer fans on mine to push/pull air through it, you want to blow out the spark in a hurry. I run about 1/4" of gap.

For other readers: Yes, I know this is not an optimal solution. But the amount of money I can put into the TC right now is low, and this solution just plain works. The specs come from a 1964 Popular Electronics article, "Big TC".

I am not a mathematical expert and there are some true Tesla Wizards on this mailing list. What I'm trying to say is that this *works* and you don't always have to spend the big bucks to get a perfectly satisfying Tesla Coil.

    Thanks,

    Dave Small