5.3. Capacitor

A capacitor is nothing more than two conductive surfaces separated by an insulator. A very nice, inexpensive capacitor can be constructed from Rubbermaid food storage boxes and aluminum HVAC tape. Using two 6 inch round containers, you can make a capacitor which will produce a 6 inch discharge (from collector to collector) from #7 and a 3.5 inch discharge from #6.

Begin by cutting four circles from the foil tape. My tape is 3 inches wide, so I tape two widths together for a 6 inch circle. Peel the backing off of the foil tape and attach a circle to the inside and outside bottoms of each container. The bottom of each container is now a foil sandwich with plastic in between. A copper endcap is then Gooped to the inside and outside centers of each container. Goop around the outside of each cap, leaving metal-to-metal contact between the cap and the foil.

The capacitor is completed by adding copper tubing to connect each of the collectors to the inside of a container. The tops of the containers are connected by a copper tube with either street elbows or regular elbows and 1 inch copper tubes to fit the endcaps. Nothing is glued together so that things can be taken apart and put back together in different arrangements. The capacitor is shown here with the ball gap, which gives 2.5 inch discharges with #7 and 1.5 inch discharges with #6.