MMC warming

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Steven Ward by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <srward16-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Hi,

Im just wondering how warm do most MMC banks become.  Im looking for some 
personal experience answers here.  I ask because my cap gets warm after a 
bit of running.  I would say that my cap heats up to about 102 degrees(F).  
Off hand i do not know how many degrees C that is.  My GE caps are rated to 
85 C.  I have a feeling that they are not that hot.  Im running my TC with a 
reconditioned NST(12/40).  My cap consists of one string of 8, GE .068uf for 
a cap of .0079uf -at- 24kvdc.  I would have to say that my transformer primary 
gets warmer than the cap, just to give you all an idea of the temperature.  
I can hold my hand on the cap with absolutely no discomfort.  I hope that im 
giving a good description of how warm they get.

SOOOO... is this acceptable, or am i going to ruin these caps soon??  Ive 
tried my next best cap configuration, 2 strings of 10 caps for a .0136 cap, 
but this was much too big, and gave weak performance.

Also, I was wondering what my perfomance would be considered(good or bad).  
Heres my specs:

12000v ~40ma NST
9 gap static RQ type set at a tad bit over 12000v
.0097 GE MMC
Twin coil set up: pri, 3.5"inner/12"outer diameter, taped at 5 turns
       Secondaries are 2.5"x 10" wound with 28g, 2"x12" toroids.

My best spark so far is 26" with a breakout point, and 22" without a 
breakout point.  Unfortunately, i could not get my SRSG to work.

I would like to hear what you all think about my MMC getting warm like it 
does, because i really would like it to last a while.

Steve Ward.

_