Homemade Capacitor

I'd been looking at the materials sitting in my living room for a while now. I might as well do it.

Materials:

2 Xerox brand Overhead Projector Sheets - free from dumpster  (two packs of 100 sheets)
2 sheets Aluminum foil, generic.
4 feet Radio Shack burglar alarm window tape.
Tape (not for electronics, but all I have here)

Starting with  plastic sheet, foil on top. Cut to exactly 8"x10"

Plastic is 8 1/2x11"

Conductive burglar alarm tape (sticky side against plastic, other side on foil)

Taped to secure. Repeat again with a second layer.

Runs along the entire length for uniformity and good conductivity.

Not as good as solder, but I dont want lumps.

I have mad soldering skills & was taught by

a NASA contractor AFTER I'd thought I was good already, 

so I could do it "without lumps". This is just a proof-of-concept anyways.

Final 16-17nF!

After testing with a battery, it holds a tiny charge that is quickly dissipated by my meter.

I really need better tools at home. Great justification to buy more!

I will continue to experiment with dual layers and other sizes.

I can take this to work and try out on a hi-pot tester to see what the breakdown is.

I'm hoping to score 15kV at least on this!

For education or other DIY plans, try:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance

http://teravolt.org/diy-capacitors/

Locker Room & Hallway Relamping & Ballasts.

More Rocket Science today.

Moving right along, we were well-prepared from yesterday. We have ballasts, wirenuts, quick-disconnects, T8F28 SPX41 lamps (nice bright cool white, 4100K. I hate the 3500k yellow crap lamps) to finish up the lamping project and replace all the old shitty defective ballasts.

One fixture has 24" square U lamps, bad ballast in that one, no voltage to the "tombstones", at least not enough to fire off my pocket tester.

Beeps when near voltage over 90 volts, does NOT have to have

anything "on" in the circuit; just a path of available voltage, like a wall

switch in the "off" position; one side will be "hot", and make this beep and light up.

We didnt have any ballasts to power three lamps, so I had to use two ballasts that could be used for either ONE or TWO lamps, and stuff them in the fixture. Tough, but possible. Also had to rewire the "tombstones", because now the wiring is different. I also pulled apart the sockets to bend back the press-fit tabs. The wiring may come loose from these, or at times can be pulled right out of the "tombstone" when replacing a ballast and you wont even know it. 

Cardboard insulator covering the connectors

Removing the connector from the inside\

 Bent and unbent pins (left side)

How I had to wire two ballasts to power three lamps. Just use both examples!

So, we finished up the rest of the day doing this. The Women's locker room is twice the size of the Men's locker room...there are also a half dozen toilets, nothing but a sink in the Men's room. I sure hope the men aren't peeing in the sink...but the sink in the Women's room doesn't work at all...so how are they washing their hands?

Eww...

One last tip for the day...

Cleaning the dirt that collects around the lines of flux.

Good idea to do this, black soot isn't a good reflector.

Formula 409 and a rag is good enough, and all we have at work

approved by entry into the MSDS system.

Wash your hands, kids. You're touching nasty things all day long that other people touched with pee-pee and poo-poo hands.

lol.

Tool Time

Time to admire a few things we'd ordered. Simple tools and equipment can make a job easier, faster, safer, and more profitable than the cost of the tools in the first place.

Enter Exhibit "A": Waterproof Protective Gloves:

Great for when I always seem to smack the back of my hand on something.

I hate that; it's an annoying pain.

Two replacement Gearwrenches, ratcheting, Offset, and one that doesn't come in the set.

One Unibit, great for FAST holes for EMT/Conduit or a pre-hole

for a "Greenlee knockout"; i.e., pushbuttons/light for control panels, e-stops, etc.

American companies must provide PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for employees that require it by OSHA regulations. Every year they allow us $125 for work boots/steel toed/ESD/kevlar-toe (for working near the magnetic MRI coils; we have vendors that come to our site once a year and offer us low-and average-quality protective footwear for $65-2/$125 and usually give us a pair of socks, too.

It's rather nice having a "footwear professional" talk to us about the quality, fit, longevity, and everything else they know about shoes. You don't normally think of them as anything but "Shoe Salesmen", but these guys are amazingly intelligent and really enjoy their careers. Some are owner-operators of a franchise. They come around Valentine's Day this year to hock their wares to us. No cash up-front, either. Just Sign & Drive.

Just in time, too!

Battery acid effects, amplified with time.