Posted by Gary Weaver---Capacitor Construction that will save you $$$. My New Capacitors. I spent several weeks thinking about this before I finally decided to build it. All of the capacitor plans I have seen look hard to build that why I have refused to build one. I came up with my own design that seem easy to build. Also with other plans I have seen you can not use the new capacitor for several months until all the air has had a chance to escape. With my design you do not have to wait to use the new capacitor. I bought a roll of .010 aluminum flashing 10" wide at the lumber yard. I cut the cap plates 9' long with a 12" long tab that is 1.5" wide. The total length with the tab is 10'. I used a paper punch to make a hole in the tab so I could bolt is down. I folded the tabs over 90 degrees so it will stick out on the side of the plate and stick out the end of the caps after it is rolled up. I bought a roll of .006 mill clear polyethylene at the lumber yard. The roll was 10' by 100'. I cut it into strips 14" wide by 222" long by rolling the plastic around a pipe first then cutting around the pipe with a razor knife. I laided the strips out on the carpet floor in the house. I put 9 layers of poly in a stack. Then I laid the aluminum plate on the stack of poly and folded the poly over the top of the aluminum plate. Now there is 9 layers of .006 poly on both sides of the plate. Its made like a sandwitch with poly on both sides and the aluminum plate in the middle. The poly hangs over each side of the plate 2" and hangs over the tab end 3". I made 2 poly and aluminum sandwitches and placed one on top of the other making sure that one tab sticks out on the left side and the other tab sticks out on the right side. The tabs are on the open end of the poly not the end where the poly folds around the plate. I bought a piece of 1" PVC pipe to use as a center for rolling the plates up tight. The 1" pipe measures 1.25" outside diameter. I cut a piece of 1" pipe 15" long for the center. I placed the 1" pipe on the end of the poly that folds around the plates not the tab end of the plate and started rolling. I rolled it up as tight as I could. The sheet of poly tried to get out of line a little on both sides but with a 2" hang over this is not a problem. I put a piece of masking tape around the rolled cap to hold it in place until I could insert it into the 6" PVC pipe. After rolling both plates together there are 18 layers of .006 mil polyethylene between each plate. d=.108 A=1080 K=2 C=.00896 uf 40,000 volt rating. Formula C=[(.224 times K times A) divided by d] times 2. I cut a piece of 6" PVC pipe 16" long and slid the rolled capacitor into the pipe. It was a very tight fit. I had to spin the capacitor in the direction of the roll after I removed the tape to get it to go into the pipe all the way. I drilled a # 7 hole in the PVC end caps and tapped the plastic for 1/4" by 20 threads. I made 2 threaded studs 2" long from 1/4" threaded rod and screwed the stud into the threaded hole of the end cap. Then I put a 1/4" hex nut on each end of the stud and tightened it against the plastic end caps. I put a small amount of lock tight on the threaded rod and nuts to hold them in place. I used the hot melt glue gun to seal around the hex nuts where they touch the end caps. I drill and tap a 1/8" NPT pipe thread in only one end cap. I made sure there was 1/2" of thread sticking out on the outside of the cap for wire connections and a nut. Next is put the aluminum tabs from cap on the 1/4" threaded rods and put on a lock washer and a nut to hold it in place. Then I glued the end caps to the 6" PVC pipe with lots of glue and used a rubber hammer to make sure they were on all the way. While the glue was drying on the PVC I drove to the power company and bought 5 gallons of transformer oil for $2.00 a gallon. When I returned home about an hour later I connected the vacuum pump to the 1/8" pipe threads on the end cap of the capacitor and pumped a vacuum. The vacuum guage was reading 30. I held the vacuum for a few minutes then closed the valve to the pump and opened the valve to the container of oil and back filled the capacitor. It took a few minutes for the cap to fill with oil. Then I removed the vacuum hose and plugged the hole with a socket set screw pipe plug. Construction time and cost of 1 rolled capacitors .008 uf. 2 aluminum plates 25 minutes $6.00. 18 polyethylene sheet 14" by 222" 45 minutes $9.20. 2 PVC end caps 6" dia drill and tap. 5 min $20.46. 1 PVC pipe 6" dia by 16" 5 min $3.18. Misc, nuts, washer, stud, pipe plug. 5 min $1.00. 1 gallon of transformer oil 10 minutes $2.00. 1 PVC pipe 1" dia by 15" long 2 min $0.30. TOTAL construction time = 87 min each cap $42.14 each cap. I spent more time driving around town buying the materials than I did building the capacitors. I probably spent 5 or 6 hours driving around town getting the stuff together to make these capacitors. After I had finished both capacitors I took them both to Fox Brothers electric motor repair to have them tested. They both tested .008 uf just exactly as I had calculated they should be. There meter did not read 4 places. The actual value of the finished cap could be .0080 to .0089. Then I took the capacitors both to Desco an electrical contractor supply company so I could use there meter to test it again. Again the meter read .008 uf. There meter did not read 4 places either. I returned home and didn't waste any time removing the glass plate capacitor from the TC and put on 1 of the new poly caps. It has been about 2 hours sence I finished them both. The output of the secondary was 13" with the glass plate capacitor and now its 32" with one rolled capacitor. With 2 rolled capacitors in parallel the output is 44". Gary Weaver