Subject Homemade Capacitors
Posted by Joe, Moster on 2005-06-08 17:08
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Out of curiosity I decided to give homemade capacitors a try. The following details my attempt, and final results. In comparison to other high voltage capacitors, the ones I created where very large, but had much higher capacitance. The polyethylene is sold as a painter’s drop cloth at Wal-Mart, and the aluminum foil is the same kind used in the kitchen. I discovered, in writing up this post, that Larry Leins used a very similar approach as detailed in his post here http://www.fusor.net/board/view.php?bn=fusor_construction&key=1008172183
Materials
Polyethylene13.5" X 12'
2 X Aluminum foil 6" X 12'
2 X Copper Wire 7"
2 X Rubber Bands
Procedure
Polyethylene sheet folded in half and first piece of aluminum was placed into the fold. One end of this foil was wrapped around the first copper wire to form the first lead. Second piece of foil placed on top of polyethylene, and the opposite end was wrapped around second copper lead. Rolled up capacitor and secured with rubber bands after being tightened.
Final Analysis
Using this technique, two capacitors were rolled. The first one was 200 nanofarads*, while the second achieved 300 nanofarads*. Each piece of foil gives about 864 square inches of surface area. The Polyethylene sheet was 2 mil thick. Currently, the amount of voltage it can handle is unknown. Only testing will show how much it can take.
*Originally mistakenly marked these as being mircofarads.
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2005-06-08 17:08 Homemade Capacitors 
(Joe, Moster) [Latest: 2007-16-05 11:19]