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Author Topic: Cheap homemade capacitors  (Read 34090 times)

Phil

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Cheap homemade capacitors
« on: April 08, 2005, 07:48:11 PM »
 
A few years ago I had a thought regarding high power capacitors that could be built easily by cheapskate?.? Err?? ?budget-minded? experimenters.
I thought of using Styrofoam plates as the dielectric and heavy-duty aluminum foil as the plate. Since then I read somewhere on the Internet that someone tried this idea but used Styrofoam cups instead of the plates.
I think this would be a really great way to build a quick, cheap ?Super-Capacitor? and the beauty of this idea is you could build a 6-foot tall (or whatever size you wanted to try) for pocket change.
For those experimenters that think this idea has merit and wants to try it I would suggest cutting the foil ?plates? a little smaller than the plates and then connect them with a ?foil strap?? on each side. The straps could be two long pieces (about 1-3 inches wide depending on size of your stack) then making a fold at each plate and putting a drop of instant super glue on the end of the fold, this will hold the strap in place and when the array is ?tightened? up the fold will make contact with each plate. On the ends you could use a Styrofoam plate that is completely wrapped in heavy aluminum foil with a section of copper wire wrapped into the foil (you can use a buncha foil on the end plate) and to insure you have a good connection to the foil I would use stranded copper wire and ?fan? out the end of the wire.
I haven?t had a chance to put together a test ?unit? yet but I will post results when I get around to it.
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Vorg

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2005, 04:56:32 AM »
YOu can get Styrene sheets from a hoby store. package says Evergreen Scale Models. The package I got for model building had 1 each .010", .020", and .040" thick and cost $2. THe sheets are 12" x 6". Note, they are not styrofoam, they are Sheet Styrene.
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hartiberlin

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2005, 02:33:46 PM »
Well, for a supercap you need graphite or active charcoal material, otherwise you will not have the storage of the
ions inside the material.
You needs lots of surface in the double layer. So to speak it easily you need electrode, that
can store
lots of ions and that is mostly any graphite or active charcoal.

Regards, Stefan.
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raburgeson

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2005, 03:28:30 AM »
Try this and tell me how you make out.Get a roll of the thickest Alum.foil you can find 14"
wide and a roll of freezer wrap 18" wide. roll out the amun. foil cut it so you get 2 equal lengths.
Solder leads out the sides on the ends on the same proscetive corner, lay 1 out on the floor and
cover it with the freezer wrapwith a 2" border all the way around. Fold the wrap and go back
over it to make it double thick. Turn the other piece of foil aroun and lay it over the first.
Fold the freezer wrap borders in, then roll the whole thing up, wrap the outside. And please be
carefull not to kill yourself with it.
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raburgeson

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2005, 03:35:55 AM »
Forgot to tell you to make the wire leads long enough to put a 2" fold in them.
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Thaelin

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2005, 08:54:16 PM »
   And just how many FARADS does this monster come out to be?   :o
  Not sure I would even want to be in the vecinity of it. Could turn out to be a real heart stopper.

sugra
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hartiberlin

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2005, 01:43:58 AM »
probably only a few uF, not more.
But it could probably be used for around 500 Volts or so..
This is surely enwough to kill you !
So be careful to charge it up with high voltages !

Supercaps with Farad of capacity can only be build
with the double layers of e.g. graphite and a fluid
electrolyte !

Regards, Stefan.
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ticktocking

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2005, 02:36:58 AM »
I was wondering if a capacitor made say 4" by 4" with 1/2 in of space between would be the same capacity as one made with pieces 8" by 4" only the 8" was folded up like a fan so it was 4" by 4" and 1/2 space between also, i think it would be the same or maybe less but i may be wrong! your thoughts on this?
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dracozny

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #8 on: April 22, 2005, 03:52:37 AM »
sounds like the diagram below

___________
WWWWWW

however with the fan style you increase the chance of dielectric breakdown.
I also dont think you will gain a noticable boost in farad capacity if any
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raburgeson

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2005, 04:55:16 PM »
I see a bit of confusion about the rolled aluminium cap so I'll tell you, the
dielectric break down is at about 92 volts and yes this thing has farads
without decimal points. We were charging them in series pairs (160 rms)
and they are very leathel use extreame caution around them.The amount
of surface area of the plates determines (along with the distance between
them) the type of charge you can apply and store. This one has a lot of
surface area. Makes them suitable for storage, and they definitely are
heart stoppers, as some people here may build one just to say they made
a cap they should downsize it and still treat it with respect. It's been brought
to my attention there are a couple of young experimenters in here who
are very serious hobbiers.I ask them to not play with this , don't make
something like this unless you have a definite use for it. For any that do
build one put in a switchable bleeder curcuit so you can discharge this
without trying to short it. (That is dangerous)
 
« Last Edit: April 26, 2005, 05:46:56 PM by raburgeson »
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AbbaRue

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #10 on: September 07, 2005, 05:33:33 AM »
To make high voltage caps I used the thin hard plastic cups sold for picnics.
I wrap Alum. Foil around the outside of the cup and then place it inside another cup.
You can keep stacking these cups one on top of the other to get some impressive capacitance.
I hooked it up the the output of a flyback transformer circuit.
placed the output leads close to each other and once the caps were charged they discarged across the gap.
Sounded like large firecrackers going off. Got so load I could hardly stand the noise.
Hope this helps someone make a HV power supply too.
AbbaRue.
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RunningBare

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2007, 02:30:00 AM »
Making high voltage caps is easy, it depends on the dialectric between each conducting layer, making high farads is a totaly different matter requiring 1000s if not 100s of 1000s of layers, if you strip down a 100 uf capacitor, inside you will find what looks like a plain foil rolled up, if you unravel the foil you will find it has a conductive painted layer on each side of what looks like thin mica(the dialectric), even super capacitors with the graphite layer still has 1000s of turns making up 1000s of layers, thats why their power to weight ratio is still worse than batteries.
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lancaIV

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Re: Cheap homemade capacitors
« Reply #12 on: August 10, 2007, 02:55:18 AM »
Probably you heared about a Mr. Takahashi-Motor,
but do you also know that he has publicated a patent about a up to  100X higher charge than up-to-date capacitor !?

S
  dL
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