Giant Capacitors. Where do I find them? - Electronic Circuits Projects Diagrams Free

Halogrunt1234 · 27th September 2005, 03:30 PM

I am currently interested in getting as large as a capacitor as possible and I would like to know what devices I should be looking in to find high-capacitance and high-voltage capacitors. as of right now, the best capacitors I haver are 2 200V 330uF camera flash capacitors and a 6800 uF capacitor rated at 35 V that I randomly found out of a particularly tempermental Inkjet printer.

My goal for all of these capacitors is to hook them up in parallel, charge them with as many 9V batteries as possible, and try to melt a hole through a dime from the massive discharge of the capacitors. if at all possible, I would like to exceed 1 Farad at at least 50 V.

anyway, I need to generate as many sparks as possible, and I would need to get my capacitors from a cheap source (i.e. monitors at thrift stores)

Someone Electro · 27th September 2005, 04:21 PM

Your going to need a LLLOOOTTT of caps.

60 000 uF to 60V makes big and loud sparks and makes a hole about 0,5 mm in a coin.

Meaby if you look at an surplus store.

You may also need more than 50V to discharge those caps fast enugh.Or it will vaporise the metal that is cnotacting and break the circuit.

There are easyer ways of making holes in coins,

Optikon · 27th September 2005, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halogrunt1234

I am currently interested in getting as large as a capacitor as possible and I would like to know what devices I should be looking in to find high-capacitance and high-voltage capacitors. as of right now, the best capacitors I haver are 2 200V 330uF camera flash capacitors and a 6800 uF capacitor rated at 35 V that I randomly found out of a particularly tempermental Inkjet printer.

My goal for all of these capacitors is to hook them up in parallel, charge them with as many 9V batteries as possible, and try to melt a hole through a dime from the massive discharge of the capacitors. if at all possible, I would like to exceed 1 Farad at at least 50 V.

anyway, I need to generate as many sparks as possible, and I would need to get my capacitors from a cheap source (i.e. monitors at thrift stores)

If you had 1Farad at 50V (very hard to do but not impossible) you are only storing 1250 Joules of energy with that, I seriously doubt that is anywhere near the amount you'll have to get onto that dime to put a whole in it considering all the losses you'll have in your discharge path.

My suggestion is to really consider how much work you are going to need to go through to put an unimpressive hole in a dime.

**Nigel Goodwin** · 27th September 2005, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Optikon

My suggestion is to really consider how much work you are going to need to go through to put an unimpressive hole in a dime.

Get a 12V car battery and two very thick wires :lol:

Make sure to perform the experiment near a hospital with a good emergency unit!.

drrogla · 27th September 2005, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Optikon

If you had 1Farad at 50V (very hard to do but not impossible) you are only storing 1250 Joules of energy with that

This is true. In order to get a lot of enegy from a capacitor bank, the voltage is more important. It is also important that you can get the bank to discharge with a great amount of current. I have allready posted a website with high voltage projects, there is also a "destructotron"(or something)

E=(V^2 * C) / 2

Joule energy (HEAT):

E=V * I * t

drrogla · 27th September 2005, 05:40 PM

The link for the Destruc-o-tron

Oznog · 27th September 2005, 07:18 PM

The current delivery capability of the caps is important. In this aspect many parallel caps is usually much better than using fewer but bigger caps to get the same capacitance.

There are many people who have build dischargers- usually much higher voltage- that will blow up apples and things. In this case they have 2 electrodes, one of which is tied directly to the cap bank and the other through some form of interrupter before being tied to the other end of the bank.

But the truly incredible discharger is the Quarter Crusher. It uses a heavy coil and does not touch the quarter directly. The discharge creates such a fast-changing intense magnetic field that it crushes it into a smaller piece. The coil is destroyed in the process.

It requires a huge amount of energy storage and some very high end capacitors. Lesser quality caps may only survive a few bursts. It's an expensive and huge rig.

panic mode · 27th September 2005, 11:19 PM

i have few brand new nichicon caps. each is 3900uF/400V and with
large screw terminals. what should i do with them? maybe a toy coil gun...?

Someone Electro · 28th September 2005, 06:35 AM

Those must be some prety big caps.

panic mode · 28th September 2005, 08:15 PM

they are about 3" diameter and about 5" long and have nice strap as a mounting bracket. they ware intended for VFDs. guy in local repair shop
didn't know what to do with them as his shop was overstocking them. i offered to find good home for couple of them before they end up
in a garbage.
they look like this (picture doesn't show strap):
http://www.alltronics.com/images/21P001.jpg

I didn't have Laško but he accepted Heineken.

Styx · 28th September 2005, 08:23 PM

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSear...=4704769&N=401

63V (you will need soem voltage de-rating)
150mF

so for 1F you need 7 in parallel

drrogla · 29th September 2005, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panic mode

they are about 3" diameter and about 5" long and have nice strap as a mounting bracket. they ware intended for VFDs. guy in local repair shop
didn't know what to do with them as his shop was overstocking them. i offered to find good home for couple of them before they end up
in a garbage.
they look like this (picture doesn't show strap):
http://www.alltronics.com/images/21P001.jpg

I didn't have Laško but he accepted Heineken.

Nice looking cap. I`ve got some ancient 120mF/15Vcaps

Every beer is better than no beer. :wink:

Halogrunt1234 · 5th October 2005, 06:29 PM

ok...

how about if i just wanted to simply shock a hole through a dime, with or without capacitors? I'm also working on electrolysis of water... how many 9V batteries hooked in series do you think it would take for me to do some major electrolysis, to the point where I can light a flame over the water and burn hydrogen? Im at 16 batteries, and still adding more...

Someone Electro · 5th October 2005, 06:50 PM

Hidrogen dose not burn it explodes violenty.

You might try an thing caled termite.Its an mixture of iron oxide (Rust in idiont languge) and aluminium powder.Wen ignited it develops about 2500 C° wich is enugh to melt a hole in a peny.

Its so hot it makes ice explode.

To get best results you have to catch the right ratio betwen rust and aluminium.

**Nigel Goodwin** · 5th October 2005, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Someone Electro

You might try an thing caled termite.Its an mixture of iron oxide (Rust in idiont languge) and aluminium powder.Wen ignited it develops about 2500 C° wich is enugh to melt a hole in a peny.

It's actually "thermite" :lol: a termite is an insect that eats houses in America 8)

They've been using Thermite on the UK TV show Brainiacs, very impress stuff!.

Remembering back to my school days, a mixture of aluminum powder and powdered iodine works very well also! - they both need to be ground very finely, and kept COMPLETELY dry - add a drop of water and it starts the reaction, producing huge amounts of heat (that will melt various metals) and massive clouds of thick purple smoke :lol:

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27th September 2005, 03:30 PM	(permalink)
Halogrunt1234	Giant Capacitors. Where do I find them? I am currently interested in getting as large as a capacitor as possible and I would like to know what devices I should be looking in to find high-capacitance and high-voltage capacitors. as of right now, the best capacitors I haver are 2 200V 330uF camera flash capacitors and a 6800 uF capacitor rated at 35 V that I randomly found out of a particularly tempermental Inkjet printer. My goal for all of these capacitors is to hook them up in parallel, charge them with as many 9V batteries as possible, and try to melt a hole through a dime from the massive discharge of the capacitors. if at all possible, I would like to exceed 1 Farad at at least 50 V. anyway, I need to generate as many sparks as possible, and I would need to get my capacitors from a cheap source (i.e. monitors at thrift stores) __________________ message posted just in case anybody cares Electronics engineer in High-School Training

27th September 2005, 04:21 PM	(permalink)
Someone Electro	Your going to need a LLLOOOTTT of caps. 60 000 uF to 60V makes big and loud sparks and makes a hole about 0,5 mm in a coin. Meaby if you look at an surplus store. You may also need more than 50V to discharge those caps fast enugh.Or it will vaporise the metal that is cnotacting and break the circuit. There are easyer ways of making holes in coins, __________________ Il give you shocking experience.

27th September 2005, 05:40 PM	(permalink)
drrogla	The link for the Destruc-o-tron __________________ Božo My avatar : It`s a truck full of beer (if anyone was wondering) Laško je zakon!!

27th September 2005, 07:18 PM	(permalink)
Oznog	The current delivery capability of the caps is important. In this aspect many parallel caps is usually much better than using fewer but bigger caps to get the same capacitance. There are many people who have build dischargers- usually much higher voltage- that will blow up apples and things. In this case they have 2 electrodes, one of which is tied directly to the cap bank and the other through some form of interrupter before being tied to the other end of the bank. But the truly incredible discharger is the Quarter Crusher. It uses a heavy coil and does not touch the quarter directly. The discharge creates such a fast-changing intense magnetic field that it crushes it into a smaller piece. The coil is destroyed in the process. It requires a huge amount of energy storage and some very high end capacitors. Lesser quality caps may only survive a few bursts. It's an expensive and huge rig. __________________ I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

27th September 2005, 11:19 PM	(permalink)
panic mode	i have few brand new nichicon caps. each is 3900uF/400V and with large screw terminals. what should i do with them? maybe a toy coil gun...?

28th September 2005, 06:35 AM	(permalink)
Someone Electro	Those must be some prety big caps. __________________ Il give you shocking experience.

28th September 2005, 08:15 PM	(permalink)
panic mode	they are about 3" diameter and about 5" long and have nice strap as a mounting bracket. they ware intended for VFDs. guy in local repair shop didn't know what to do with them as his shop was overstocking them. i offered to find good home for couple of them before they end up in a garbage. they look like this (picture doesn't show strap): http://www.alltronics.com/images/21P001.jpg I didn't have Laško but he accepted Heineken.

28th September 2005, 08:23 PM	(permalink)
Styx	http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSear...=4704769&N=401 63V (you will need soem voltage de-rating) 150mF so for 1F you need 7 in parallel __________________ Nothing is impossible. Once a problem is realised, the rest is just details

5th October 2005, 06:29 PM	(permalink)
Halogrunt1234	ok... how about if i just wanted to simply shock a hole through a dime, with or without capacitors? I'm also working on electrolysis of water... how many 9V batteries hooked in series do you think it would take for me to do some major electrolysis, to the point where I can light a flame over the water and burn hydrogen? Im at 16 batteries, and still adding more... __________________ message posted just in case anybody cares Electronics engineer in High-School Training

5th October 2005, 06:50 PM	(permalink)
Someone Electro	Hidrogen dose not burn it explodes violenty. You might try an thing caled termite.Its an mixture of iron oxide (Rust in idiont languge) and aluminium powder.Wen ignited it develops about 2500 C° wich is enugh to melt a hole in a peny. Its so hot it makes ice explode. To get best results you have to catch the right ratio betwen rust and aluminium. __________________ Il give you shocking experience.