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Capactior Project

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windozeuser

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I was Wondering What I Need to Build A Home Made Capacitor For Expermental Purposes

I Know In A Real Capactior There's Just Two Conductor Plates And A Insulator(dielectic) Bewteen Them. But Is There Anything I Got to take into account such as the plate thickness and insulator Gap Also How Would I Determine The Polarity Of A Home Made Cap

THANKS
 
I Saw This In A book In The School Libarary Today on Ham Radio Enthusist Building A Home Made Cap. And Think It Is Pretty Cool
 
Making a capacitor is fairly easy, however I won't go into full details here - you can look it up on the web - search for "leyden jar".

The plate thickness affects both the capacitance and maximum voltage. As plate thickness increases, capacitance decreases, but maximum voltage rating increases. These values are also affected by the type of material used for the plate (eg, plastic or glass).

Generally, a homemade capacitor will not have a polarity. The only polarised capacitors are electrolytic and tantalum types.
 
Look at an air variable capacitor - or look up a picture and you'll see that two conductive plates with a little air space makes a capacitor. Two metal plates separated by a plastic film or glass plate will work as well. A short length of coaxial cable (antennas) can serve as a capacitor - the inner conductor is separated by a non-conductor. Two insulated wires twisted together will exhibit some capacitance as well.
 
But capacitors you make at home will always be small values. pF, or some nF. Don't think you can make a 1000µF capacitor at home.
Would be too big without the special materials they use
 
home made caps

Capacitors are easy to make, I made one using aluminum foil and ziplock bags. Cut the foil to fit inside the bag, cut off the zip lock part. I use mine in a tesla coil and it handles huge ammounts of power, 15,000 volts.Chech out the tesla coil sites for more info on homemade capacitors.
 
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