I made a working capacitor
but in the process i ripped a 200 volt 270uF capacitor to shreds
but i got it out perfectly without damaging it.
i unwravled the two sheets of metal and threw out the thin paper film that used to go on them
i took two sheets of printer paper and put it in place of the old paper film
and i quickly dipped it in some plain water
i wrapped it back up tight and taped it back together with some packaging tape and a twist tie (was all i had to use)
i tested it and it works pretty good at low voltages (5 volts or less)
it works almost perfectly..
and it somewhat acts as a diode.. one way stores energy better.
I have no clue what the maximum capabilities of this new home made capacitor are such as the voltage.
and i have no clue how many uF's it can store. (when i tested it seemed to be around 200uF to 400uF about the same as when it was an actual capacitor and had the old papery thin film (it smelled bad)
and i was sure there was some bad chemicals in the old papery thin film so i washed my hands a lot after getting rid of it
i'm still testing the little home made capacitor and seeing how well it works.
i know i could of just used aluminum sheets and some large sheets of printer paper
but i didn't have any aluminum foil so i just opened up the small capacitor that i found in a bunch of parts and junk and replaced the yucky papery film with some nice printer paper and i just soaked it slightly in some plain tap water for a second or two
then i took it out and wrapped it back up and held it together with some packaging tape and a twist tie... literally..
but it does work which is pretty cool
but in the process i ripped a 200 volt 270uF capacitor to shreds
but i got it out perfectly without damaging it.
i unwravled the two sheets of metal and threw out the thin paper film that used to go on them
i took two sheets of printer paper and put it in place of the old paper film
and i quickly dipped it in some plain water
i wrapped it back up tight and taped it back together with some packaging tape and a twist tie (was all i had to use)
i tested it and it works pretty good at low voltages (5 volts or less)
it works almost perfectly..
and it somewhat acts as a diode.. one way stores energy better.
I have no clue what the maximum capabilities of this new home made capacitor are such as the voltage.
and i have no clue how many uF's it can store. (when i tested it seemed to be around 200uF to 400uF about the same as when it was an actual capacitor and had the old papery thin film (it smelled bad)
and i was sure there was some bad chemicals in the old papery thin film so i washed my hands a lot after getting rid of it
i'm still testing the little home made capacitor and seeing how well it works.
i know i could of just used aluminum sheets and some large sheets of printer paper
but i didn't have any aluminum foil so i just opened up the small capacitor that i found in a bunch of parts and junk and replaced the yucky papery film with some nice printer paper and i just soaked it slightly in some plain tap water for a second or two
then i took it out and wrapped it back up and held it together with some packaging tape and a twist tie... literally..
but it does work which is pretty cool
Seems like you're having fun then. The water soaked paper will not last very long, should use something else. Using water will either eventually dry out the paper, or possible make the paper rot or start a mini mildew plantation.
Good luck with experimentation! I suggest experimenting with other types of paper, and oil.
Hope you are not using this in your stereo or anywhere else :-/
Edit:
Do try to avoid air pockets in the foil.
Good luck with experimentation! I suggest experimenting with other types of paper, and oil.
Hope you are not using this in your stereo or anywhere else :-/
Edit:
Do try to avoid air pockets in the foil.
And water conducts, and so acts as a resistor or even a short circuit between your plates. What works at 5 volts won't work at higher voltages.
Salt water in various salinities instead of plain water.
An experiment would be to try different materials, like thin plastic sheeting, thin plastic film like food wrap, oil soaked paper, glass, etc. And the thickness of the material can be varied - thick paper versus thin, etc.
When I was a kid, and I am now talking over 50 years ago, I started building a large tesla Coil. Look up Tesla Coil if you want to know what it is. They generate hundreds of thousands of volts at high frequencies.
In the power supply of these things we needed a capacitor. It was not a large capacitance, but it did have to withstand extremely high voltages. SO part of the project from Popular Electronics (an old magazine) was making one. They took a pane of window glass, and glued a sheet of aluminum foil to either side of it. A little space between the edges - the foil was smaller than the pane - and there you had your cap. Thin sheets of brass (hobby store) would work too. I bet steel window screening would work.
IN TV sets, the CRT is glass, and they coat the inner and outer surfaces with conductive paint. This forms a capacitor. The pulsing 15-20kv on the third anode lead needed some filtering. It needed a cap, not a large value one, but a cap nonetheless, and this worked as that cap. Older TVs did not rely on the CRT itself for this. There were these special caps, referred to as "doorknob capacitors" due to their shape. Most of them looked to me like ceramic insulators, but they are in fact very high voltage caps. The cap value will be in picofarads. SOme old Tesla Coilo projects would use a few of those caps. IN the 1950s, the doorknob caps were common.
If interested, google "doorknob cap".
Salt water in various salinities instead of plain water.
An experiment would be to try different materials, like thin plastic sheeting, thin plastic film like food wrap, oil soaked paper, glass, etc. And the thickness of the material can be varied - thick paper versus thin, etc.
When I was a kid, and I am now talking over 50 years ago, I started building a large tesla Coil. Look up Tesla Coil if you want to know what it is. They generate hundreds of thousands of volts at high frequencies.
In the power supply of these things we needed a capacitor. It was not a large capacitance, but it did have to withstand extremely high voltages. SO part of the project from Popular Electronics (an old magazine) was making one. They took a pane of window glass, and glued a sheet of aluminum foil to either side of it. A little space between the edges - the foil was smaller than the pane - and there you had your cap. Thin sheets of brass (hobby store) would work too. I bet steel window screening would work.
IN TV sets, the CRT is glass, and they coat the inner and outer surfaces with conductive paint. This forms a capacitor. The pulsing 15-20kv on the third anode lead needed some filtering. It needed a cap, not a large value one, but a cap nonetheless, and this worked as that cap. Older TVs did not rely on the CRT itself for this. There were these special caps, referred to as "doorknob capacitors" due to their shape. Most of them looked to me like ceramic insulators, but they are in fact very high voltage caps. The cap value will be in picofarads. SOme old Tesla Coilo projects would use a few of those caps. IN the 1950s, the doorknob caps were common.
If interested, google "doorknob cap".
yesterday i dropped the capacitor in a bowl full of canola oil just to see what would happen
it doesn't do much but it seems to give it more capacity.
the voltage it seems is what charges the capacitor..
if i have a weak button cell battery to charge the capacitor and then use both the capacitor and button cell battery combined it easily makes it more stronger than the battery alone for a short burst when i hook it up to my little testing device (its a little speaker i use to test things with like how much power something has)
oh and i'm not looking to make a capacitor in nano farads
i'm looking to build one up in the hundreds of uF's or even thousands of uF's or more
should i try the aluminum foil and wet printer paper trick? it sounds like it would work like a super capacitor from what a tiny little capacitor does!
it doesn't do much but it seems to give it more capacity.
the voltage it seems is what charges the capacitor..
if i have a weak button cell battery to charge the capacitor and then use both the capacitor and button cell battery combined it easily makes it more stronger than the battery alone for a short burst when i hook it up to my little testing device (its a little speaker i use to test things with like how much power something has)
oh and i'm not looking to make a capacitor in nano farads
i'm looking to build one up in the hundreds of uF's or even thousands of uF's or more
should i try the aluminum foil and wet printer paper trick? it sounds like it would work like a super capacitor from what a tiny little capacitor does!
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I wouldn't do that until you're FULLY aware of all the safety precautions first.....
P.S. Do you read the responses given to you realflow? I don't see any replies above... A lot of useful information being freely handed out to you in all the threads you've started.
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i am fully aware of it. I read everything in peoples posts.
it's not my fault i was born with autism.. i'm just autistic..
so sometimes i may not listen perfectly... i'm not trying to ignore you..
and salt mixed with water can become dangerous and toxic when exposed to electricity
and a lot of other things can be dangerous as well... such as capacitors on a motherboard storing energy and shocking me if i mess with one i'm careful with those now because i have been shocked by one once on accident and it is not fun. so i made the capacitor without any salt because anyways i'm out of salt lol.
I do try to read the stuff in the links you guys are posting for me. but i'm partly autistic so it's hard to cope with being the internet D: sorry
it's not my fault i was born with autism.. i'm just autistic..
so sometimes i may not listen perfectly... i'm not trying to ignore you..
and salt mixed with water can become dangerous and toxic when exposed to electricity
and a lot of other things can be dangerous as well... such as capacitors on a motherboard storing energy and shocking me if i mess with one i'm careful with those now because i have been shocked by one once on accident and it is not fun. so i made the capacitor without any salt because anyways i'm out of salt lol.
I do try to read the stuff in the links you guys are posting for me. but i'm partly autistic so it's hard to cope with being the internet D: sorry
I disagree on the water conducting part.
Water in itself does not conduct electricity very well, there has to be something else added to it, like salt, acid, certain forms of dust, earth/mud or some minerals.
"Electrolysis of pure water requires excess energy in the form of overpotential to overcome various activation barriers. Without the excess energy the electrolysis of pure water occurs very slowly or not at all. This is in part due to the limited self-ionization of water. Pure water has an electrical conductivity about one millionth that of seawater. Many electrolytic cells may also lack the requisite electrocatalysts. The efficiency of electrolysis is increased through the addition of an electrolyte (such as a salt, an acid or a base) and the use of electrocatalysts."
If we're talking specifics here I would try waxed silk paper and plain vanilla alu foil. Just fold it 2 times and make a cigar roll, dip it in wax or something for sealing.
Edit:
Never tried it before, but that is what I would try out first anyway.
Edit2:
I remember when I learned to make transformers we used some really high grade silk paper and square thick solid core alu wire. Works up to several kv if done correctly.
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Hi,
They say ignorance is bliss.
A paper dielectric will give a relatively high voltage rating, and can be soaked
in oil to help prevent the ingress of moisture, water doesn't help here at all.
You'll end up with a non-polar capacitor with a small value for its size.
High value low voltage polar capacitors are a different kettle of fish,
and the above approach simply won't work for them at all.
rgds, sreten.
They say ignorance is bliss.
A paper dielectric will give a relatively high voltage rating, and can be soaked
in oil to help prevent the ingress of moisture, water doesn't help here at all.
You'll end up with a non-polar capacitor with a small value for its size.
High value low voltage polar capacitors are a different kettle of fish,
and the above approach simply won't work for them at all.
rgds, sreten.
Ignorance is bliss. Water is no good in a capacitor, but it still does not conduct electricity on it's own.
If you go the foil and paper with oil or wax route, I recommend you bake the capacitor for maybe 1-3 hours (pending on size) at 80-100 degrees celcius (pending on size and chosen timeframe) to get it properly "set in" after rolling. You can use certain types of paper tape for keeping things together when rolling and adding the connectors, you need to make sure there is as little movement as possible, it needs to be very tight. Be careful with the connectors you use, they should be same material as the foil and be careful not to puncture the dielectric or foil when packing it together.
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Hi,
True, pure water doesn't conduct very well, but damp paper
is hardly likely to be pure, things will leach out of the paper.
rgds, sreten.
Whether you use it in real equipment or not (probably not) IMO building basic electronic components is one of the best ways to learn. Do some research on the various types of capacitor and what materials they typically use. You should have no trouble making solid dielectric caps like glass, paper, plastic film and mica. An electrolytic is a bit more difficult. The way manufacturers get high values of capacitance is to etch the aluminum plates for more surface area. The electrolyte is often ethylene glycol (antifreeze- poison) with ammonium borate and a small amount of water added. Salts, even in trace amounts, are deadly to electrolytic caps- you'll never find a salted peanut vending machine in a capacitor factory! A salty fingerprint is the difference between a cap that lasts a couple weeks vs a couple decades.
Kaffi, you are right, PURE water is a poor conductor, but unless he has distilled water coming out his plumbing, his water is not pure. So within the context of the OP's situation, I have to consider water a conductor, at least enough to be significant.
Realflow: WHAT poison? I don't recall anything you have mentioned being poisonous. Salt water is not poison, canola oil is not poison. Or are you talking about the electrolyte from a commercial cap? If so, just wash it off as you did. Don't put it in your mouth and you'll be fine.
Realflow: WHAT poison? I don't recall anything you have mentioned being poisonous. Salt water is not poison, canola oil is not poison. Or are you talking about the electrolyte from a commercial cap? If so, just wash it off as you did. Don't put it in your mouth and you'll be fine.
thanksHi,
Its a lot more difficult than you imagine to expose yourself
to genuinely hazardous substances nowadays, you'll be fine.
rgds, sreten.
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