According to Ignoramus27098 :

[ ... ]

Thanks, now I understand a little better. I will soon make a stack of,
say, 30 1N4007 diodes. That would let me test the capacitors with 13
kV.

You can make 30KV from a single 1KV 60 HZ transformer, with
enough diodes and capacitors. The basic circuit of a voltage multiplier
is:

(AC)---+--)|-+------+--)|--+-----(DC)
| | | |
\---/ --- \---/ ---
\ / / \ \ / / \
--- /---\ --- /---\
| | | |
(G)-)|--+-----+-)|---+------+

That one is enough for a 4X multiplication of the voltage. Keep
adding pairs of diodes and capacitors and you keep adding voltage
multiplications -- and losing current capacity.

1 KV AC is 1.414 KV DC peak, times 4 gives you 5.656 KV just
with this simple circuit. At work, we used fairly small assemblies
potted in epoxy to get 45 KV (three 15KV taps from a 1KV P-P input.

But -- it might take nearly forever to charge your caps.

Enjoy,
DoN.
--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---