Some time ago, I made my own resistors. That was a pain in the ass and the results were somewhat unusable because of the super-low resistance ratings. But caps, on the other hand, turn out to be a bit easier and more useful to make.
My first try was this huge ugly thing that weighed in at 20n. But my second try is below. It's much smaller (2") and sports a whopping 1.8 nano-farads of metal-foil mojo. Talk about boutique!
I'll post a tutorial when I've done a few more experiments, but basically I used aluminum foil and packing tape (and some standard 26g wire).
That is just ridiculously cool.
Wow, never thought of building my own components. looking forward to the tutorial
Holy crap. :o
That is cool. I made a capacitor out of a plastic bucket, 600mL glass bottles, salt water, and oil, once, but nothing as flash as that!
:o That's really taking DIY to the next level!
You crazy son of a gun!
Do a true DIY Fuzz Face CJ, I dare you...
Jacob
You've found a new way to stick it to the man.
You should build a completely DIY'd circuit of some sort for Buy Nothing Day.
Thats cool CJ... I remember seeing a youtube video once, but the idea you could use particular dialectrics and aim for specific capacitances is cool beyond measure... boutique indeed!
Quote from: midwayfair on September 12, 2012, 12:24:24 AM
You've found a new way to stick it to the man.
You should build a completely DIY'd circuit of some sort for Buy Nothing Day.
lol! Great idea Jon... though mining your own metals might be tedious ;) ;D
Quote from: jkokura on September 12, 2012, 12:13:24 AM
Do a true DIY Fuzz Face CJ, I dare you...
I intend to do some kind of simple fuzz with some home-rolled caps. The resistors are just too hard to do. Well, they aren't hard, but to get even 1K of resistance, they would be massive (like too big for an enclosure).
Besides, everybody knows all the mojo is in the caps. So I'll focus on that.
Quote from: culturejam on September 12, 2012, 12:51:42 AM
Quote from: jkokura on September 12, 2012, 12:13:24 AM
Do a true DIY Fuzz Face CJ, I dare you...
I intend to do some kind of simple fuzz with some home-rolled caps. The resistors are just too hard to do. Well, they aren't hard, but to get even 1K of resistance, they would be massive (like too big for an enclosure).
Besides, everybody knows all the mojo is in the caps. So I'll focus on that.
Who cares how big the enclosure is... in fact, I expect that to be DIY too! I'm anticipating you creating a steel forge in your back yard.
Jacob
;D ;D
I'd pay good money for a home rolled Bazz Fuss.
Just rolled another one. This time I used smaller strips of foil but rolled it a LOT tighter, and I ended up wtih 3.5nF. Both surface area of the foils and the closeness of the two foils affect total capacitance. So the goal is the biggest area and the closest together you can get them (without touching). Rolling tighter basically doubled the capacitance.
Quote from: icecycle66 on September 12, 2012, 01:22:52 AM
I'd pay good money for a home rolled Bazz Fuss.
That's actually the one I was thinking of since it has so few parts. :D
So do you measure the tolerance as a percentage of capacitance or in thickness?
Can you make your own transistor CJ?
Jacob
Quote from: pickdropper on September 12, 2012, 01:37:28 AM
So do you measure the tolerance as a percentage of capacitance or in thickness?
I don't think tolerance is something that is measured as a property of the cap. I think what happens is that the manufacturer cranks out 100k caps and shoots for a target of, say, 100n. Then they measure them, and the ones that fall close to the target are labelled 5%, the ones that fall further out are labelled 10%, etc.
I didn't have a target capacitance, so tolerance doesn't really apply.
Quote from: jkokura on September 12, 2012, 01:39:38 AM
Can you make your own transistor CJ?
http://sparkbangbuzz.com/cds-fet/cds-fet.htm
I don't think it would be all that practical (even less so than these silly things I'm making).
Quote from: culturejam on September 12, 2012, 01:47:49 AM
Quote from: pickdropper on September 12, 2012, 01:37:28 AM
So do you measure the tolerance as a percentage of capacitance or in thickness?
I don't think tolerance is something that is measured as a property of the cap. I think what happens is that the manufacturer cranks out 100k caps and shoots for a target of, say, 100n. Then they measure them, and the ones that fall close to the target are labelled 5%, the ones that fall further out are labelled 10%, etc.
I didn't have a target capacitance, so tolerance doesn't really apply.
Yep, the time honored practice of "binning."
I was just joking about tolerance. Obviously it doesn't really apply to homemade caps.
I double dare you!!
C
Quote from: jkokura on September 12, 2012, 12:13:24 AM
You crazy son of a gun!
Do a true DIY Fuzz Face CJ, I dare you...
Jacob
That is way cool!!
How did you figure it out?
Quote from: angrykoko on September 12, 2012, 12:31:25 PM
That is way cool!!
How did you figure it out?
I saw a youtube video where somebody shows how to make one with plastic food wrap and aluminum foil. I figured packing tape would be sturdier and easier to work with.
Missed this because of being on holiday, cool as h#ll!
Quote from: alanp on September 11, 2012, 11:52:18 PM
That is cool. I made a capacitor out of a plastic bucket, 600mL glass bottles, salt water, and oil, once, but nothing as flash as that!
I dare you to use this in a pedal! ;)