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Registered Member #1149
Joined: Wed Nov 28 2007, 09:30PM
Location: Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Posts: 9
I built some bottle capacitors for my coil. I have not yet completed the secondary coil, but I have finished the caps and attempted to charge them with my nst (15/30). Everything seems to work okay when the nst, tank cap, spark gap, and primary and connected in the attached circuit. However, after the power is switched off, the capacitor does not seem to hold a charge. When I short the terminals, there is no spark or sound. However, the spark gap does fire okay. Does anyone know if the capacitor is functioning properly? If so, why is there no spark when it is shorted?
Registered Member #477
Joined: Tue Jun 20 2006, 11:51PM
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 546
Generally, running your coil with no secondary is hazardous to the health of your other components. It's a great way to destroy your NST due to excessive resonant voltage rise, for example. That said: Did the spark gap crackle loudly when run, or did you just get an arc? If the spark gap didn't make a deafening crackle and produce a blinding white light, then perhaps there is something very fundamentally wrong with the caps, in which case pictures and a look at your recipe might help.
Registered Member #1149
Joined: Wed Nov 28 2007, 09:30PM
Location: Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Posts: 9
It is just an arc. Perhaps my brine mixture is incorrect. The capacitor is made up of two wine bottles filled to 4 inches below the lid with brine (water saturated with salt). They have motor oil on top of the brine to prevent corona loss and a copper tube hangs in each one. The copper tubes are welded together. The wine bottles are sitting in a cooler filled with the same brine solution to the same level as the bottles. It also is topped off with oil. There is a copper tube in the cooler as well which makes up the second plate. I will post some picture as soon as I can. Can several ac motor starting caps in series be used as a tank cap? I understand that they have a mylar dielectric which is undesirable, but will they function in TC use?
Registered Member #53
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:31AM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 638
I have tired salt water caps and had so-so reslults in the past. If you want the most bang for your buck, try foil and plastic sheet capacitors. Or if you cant get a hold of the plastic sheet you can make party cup/plastic plate capacitors (uses plastic cups or dinner plates as the dielectric). All of those are less messy then salt water caps and will last you long enough to build some higher quality caps or buy some "real" ones.
Registered Member #477
Joined: Tue Jun 20 2006, 11:51PM
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 546
Clive Hansen wrote ...
It is just an arc. Perhaps my brine mixture is incorrect. The capacitor is made up of two wine bottles filled to 4 inches below the lid with brine (water saturated with salt).
Have you played with the bottle cap calculator on www.classictesla.com? Two bottles sounds like WAYYY too little for a 15/30 NST, but I could be wrong. Your construction sounds ok to me...
Registered Member #1149
Joined: Wed Nov 28 2007, 09:30PM
Location: Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Posts: 9
This calculator shows very different results from the one I originally used. I am going to try my luck with party cup caps. Does anyone have good instructions for these? Or a calc which works with them?
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Bottle capacitors
