Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 16:07:30 -0600 From: Erik C Schwartz Reply to: usa-tesla@usa.net Subject: Re: Capacitor sources Hello, I have an excellent idea for those of you who make glass and foil caps. Build a box out of wood about three inches taller than your glass plates, the box need not have a lid. Using a table saw or a hand saw (the power kind with the blades that are used on a table saw), abjust the blade so that instead of cutting through the wood it cuts a slot. Use nails to assemble the liddless box, making sure that the seams are together (no cracks). Slide your plate glass caps into the box, leave about 1.2" to 2" space between the caps, you don't want any arcing. Now go outside, this can get messy! Heat, in a double boiler, some canning parifin, enough to cover the caps completely. While the parifin is melting, get duct tape and go over every seam, then go over the seams again and this time over lap the edges of the tape already on the box. I also forgot to mention, you need to connect your caps in parralell(sp?), run uncoated copper wire from each plate to the top of the box, placing the wire opposite sides of the box for each capacitor. Now the parifin should be completely melted use a candy making thremometer to measure the temp. It needs to be about 190 F. When it reaches this, pour the parifin into the box, covering the caps completely, you will want to parifin to come almost to the top of the box. Make sure that the parafin is not leaking out of the seams of the box. if you discover that it is, use more duct tape to stop the leaking. If you have a limited budget, you might want to get a large cookie sheet, that has lips on all sides, then if parifin leakes you can reuse it. It will take about 24 hours for the parifin to completely harden, in the first 45 - 120 minutes you may want to check on it. I have had experience making candles, and the wax tends to get air bubbles, these cause sinks in cooling wax. If any air bubbles are seen, use a dowel to try and move them to the surface, the parifin should be clear enough to see through went molten. If any sinks occur, the only time you can correct them is during the 45 - 120 minutes. Use the dowel, and poke it through the hardened sink and the move it up and down, then pour more parifin into the hole, and file the sink. This project can get annoying, when you have to continue to fill the sinks, how ever if you manage to remove the air pockets under the sinks ond fill the sink, this protects the caps from losing energy to ionize the air around it. Unprotected glass/foil caps glow blue, this may not seem like a large lose, but every little bit counts. Erik Schwartz ecs9211@gemini.tntech.edu After thoughts : I forgot, It is a good idea to also allow 1 or 2 inches on the bottom of the box to keep the highly charged caps from arcing around the parifin. Just don't make the slots go all the way to the bottom of the box so that the parifin will cover all sides of the caps. If this procedure works well for anyone, please give some feedback!