PowerLabs Sponsors!

The number one question I keep on getting about this webpage is where all the money for these projects came from; good part of the projects and equipment (power supplies, capacitor banks, SCRs, Dewar Flask) pictured here costs anywhere from a couple hundred to several thousand dollars. Although in many stances I have been fortunate enough to find what I needed in surplus or used equipment shops, my projects often require such unique and/or rare components that regardless of where I get them from I always end up paying a lot for them.
Being a student, this sort of money does not come easy for me. I often have to save up for months so I can buy the parts I need, and the delays between my acquisition of new parts and tools show as frustrating delays in the completion of projects. And this is of course not to mention the things I would *really* like to have but can only dream off as their price makes them definitely inaccessible for my budget (oscilloscopes, high energy pulse discharge capacitors, signal generators, signal amplifiers, current probes, etc) and hence makes some of my projects which are already designed a practical impossibility. This sponsors page is here to recognize all of those who have helped me along in my projects and to attempt to make some money off my efforts with PowerLabs so that perhaps I will at least be able to pay for my hosting fees. Any help in terms of money or equipment is of course more than welcome and will be put to good use.

First and foremost I have to thank my parents (pictured here) for their continuing support. Up until last year they have been my sole sponsors, paying not only for my (expensive) schooling but also for every single one of my projects. I owe them everything I am and know and I hope one day I will be able to pay them back for all they have given me. Aside from their full financial support for all of my projects they also took me everywhere I needed to go in the search for tools and parts, and allowed me to build a laboratory in both houses we lived in (a decision that I suspect they might have regretted several times, but which was highly appreciated nonetheless:). I know if I was them I wouldn't have put up with nearly as much as they did (on both houses we had to pay a lot in repairs when we moved out)! Sorry about the silk living room chairs and the bath tub, mom :)

Sponsors:

YOU can sponsor PowerLabs. Donate any amount to my Paypal account and I will use this money to fund more projects.

Sam Parler, R&D Director of Cornell Dubilier Electronics and the company he works for donated to me several thousand dollars worth of the best electrolytic capacitors I have ever worked with;
Their sponsorship made my RailGun project possible and is by far the most significant donation to my work I have received so far. CDE is an ISO9000 company and a leading manufacturer of all sorts of capacitors; their snubber capacitors have been employed in MMC capacitor banks on several dozen different Tesla Coils by builders around the world with excellent results and I fully expect their donated capacitor to exceed all my design expectations. There are also many useful .pdf files on their site, some of which were written by Mr. Parler himself, including application guides, thermal modeling and general behavior of capacitors. You can obtain capacitors for any of the projects described on this page from CDE online, and they ship the next business day!

Need magnets? How about *really* powerful magnets?
Engineered Concepts carries the cheapest and most powerful neodymium supermagnets you can buy anywhere. They specialize in custom shapes and sizes and the company owner is very knowledgeable and helpful with any questions you might have. The magnet pictured above is part of my future augmented Rail Gun design; the N45 grade neodymium iron boron compound it is made off makes it by far the strongest permanent magnet I have ever seen; it will drive a bolt into a soft wooden board! George at Engineered Concepts provided me with 12 of them for the RailGun 2.0. Be sure to check out Engineered Concepts for this and other fantastic magnets at great prices!

Help pay PowerLabs hosting by visiting my sponsors:

Discount hotels
Pigeon Forge hotels

If you have any further questions/comments, don't hesitate to e-mail me!

Other book suggestions are welcome!

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Last updated 21/10/05

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