three steps forward, two steps back

Very little progress has been made on any projects due to er, "health problems".

However, I just received my first shipment of 10 used doorknob capacitors at a very reasonable price. These have slightly lower voltage and slightly higher capacitance than the ones I intended to use before, however, that might not matter much to me since A) I didn't have enough of the other caps, and the new caps will serve as well:

I've been planning to run a stage voltage of 10kV, and a peak voltage rating on the caps of 18kV shouldn't be much more of a risk than the 20kV units, but I'll have more stage capacitance.

I'm going to look at the possibility of doubling the stage capacitance, although that is probably unnecessary for my applications.

I have not tested these caps for value and dielectric withstand yet, tho I plan to do so tonight or tomorrow night. Hopefully they are okay.

If they test out okay, I plan to pick up another set of ten within a few weeks, and more after that if I am able. The seller appears to have quite a few available. These things are useful for ALL of my pulsed power projects, both current and future, so having enough for both the micro-Marx I'm working on and future pulsed power projects would be A Very Good Thing.

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The Mad Scientist Light Switch for my workshop lights is on hold temporarily. I made a foolish mistake on a brass part I was turning, and I now have to spend quite a bit of time getting it corrected before I can proceed. But I shall get it done some time soon, and then I can mount the bits that hold the mini Jacob's Ladder, and after that, work toward finishing up the art deco plastic bits for same. Eventually, I might even work on the functional bits that go inside. I think need to locate another nice old style indicator lamp, tho. Time to hit J.B. Saunders again.

More in this space as it happens.