Homemade capacitor

[kris]

Hello, (my first post)

I have a question concerning capacitors. Is it possible to make a capacitor using two metal tubes (one smaller in diameter than the other) made of brass. Both tubes would of course need to be isolated and (if I understand the theory behind capacitors) the inner tub would have to be connected to the voltage source (??).

I've tried to make something similar to this, but have thus far, been unsuccessful (my voltmeter's capacitance function gives me no real reading).

Thanks.

[MP]

There is another thread somewhere on this site where there was a discussion on making your own capacitors. Some links were also posted. You might want to search for that thread and continue in the discussion.

MP

[ante]

Kris,

The capacitor you describe made from brass tubes will not have a high value, maybe just a few pF. Does your meter work on such low values?

[gsmaster]

Far back in my school days, I took 2 pieces of paper and 2 pieces of aluminioum foil (smaller than the paper) and I placed them like this:


alouminioum========------>cable
paper=================
alouminioum========------>cable
paper=================

and I rolled them with the top alouminoum foil being inside. The paper is non conductive so it here is your paper capacitor.

PS If you squeez the paper the capacitanse will increase so you also have a variable capacitor :P

PS I hope you make sense of what I'm saying....

[kris]

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that.

So, given such a small capacitance value, how on earth do i test it.

The small capacitance is not really a problem for me, but being able to measure that value is.

[steven]

[steven]

[steven]