My Tesla Coil

[MAXX]

I've had this one for over 5 yrs, works great , esp. after re-winding the secondary to 4ft tall!
At Burning Man 2001 & 2002 I saw the spectacular sight of a HUGE Tesla Coil in action build by Dr. Megavolt - and I just HAD to build one! After much frustration, many rebuilds & a year's worth of adjustments I did it! Here are the specs for those of you in the know - after another re-wind of the secondary, it puts out 3.5 Ft. sparks!
SPECS: Primary Coil: Aluminum ground wire flat spiral - 16 turns, mounted on particle board using 1/4" pegboard pieces as spacers.
Secondary Coil: a lot ( about 1200 ) of turns of 24 AWG silver-oxide coated magnet wire wound on a 3 1/2" PVC tube, coated at least four times with clear polyurethane & spray lacquer.
Spark Gap: Two brass nut fittings mounted in 2 PVC tubes with a home-made wooden "sled" for gap adjustment. My first try: "sucker gap" with PVC elbows, copper tubing - the brass nuts one is the best - but LOUD! I did build a box to put over it to decrease the noise - somewhat...
Capacitor Bank: First try: OLD SCHOOL: 12 "beer bottle capacitors" (Coors & Warsteiner 350Ml long-neck bottles with screw-on caps). They're filled with brine topped off with motor oil, wrapped with aluminum foil on the outside; 1/4" carriage bolts thru the screw-on caps. This cap bank is in parallel, sitting on an aluminum plate & it sits inside a champagne bottle box. This only got me 3 - 4" sparks & great coronas with a brass doorknob - it really worked! Now I'm using a home-build solid-state cap bank with 64 high-voltage caps. on a home-made plexiglass PC board in parallel.
Toroid: First try: Aluminum foil tape wrapped around a 12" straw wreath form, again small sparks but complete coronas all the way around. Now I'm using an aluminum ducting Toroid with great results! Brass doorknobs work well too ;-)
Neon Sign Transformer: Approx. 1.5Kv, 1.8 Amp load - "sweet spot" for tuning at 11 turns on the PC. Biggest pains: hand winding the secondary, the beer bottle caps weren't that hard, I used glue spray to attach the foil. The primary was hard to wind since it acted like a spring. THis was well worth the effort! Now onto the Wimhurst Machine!

[MAXX]

Yeah, we meet once a month, if you'd like an update mail me @ marcelpeelen(@)live(dot)com. Mebbe U know of the Xcel TC spreadsheet - pain in the ass, never used it either. The spinning plates sound like the Wimhurst I'm building, 2 plates w/sectors spinning in opposite directions w/brushes & a small cap - it hasn't worked yet, but like the TC, practice makes perfect. I also built a small ladder & a bigger one, & am planning on building 2 diff. types of TC (one w/a conical secondary). I've also got lots of Tesla info - won't B going to BM this yr (it's getting way 2 big) but am going 2 dreamtime ;-) I'm also at: myspace.com/marcelpeelen I've got music there (alwayz lookin 4 a gig!) I'll friend U, later MAXX

[Hot Rod- Springs RC]

The mad sci club sounds like a good time. I still have all of my original drawings and schematics for my TC. I also have a little program I can dig up that does primary and secondary coil designs based on inputs and desired outputs. There is a section of our main library that (when I was younger) had a bunch of original work done by Tesla devotees. Good stuff. If you're headed to the Burn this year, come and check out of little Jacob's ladder atop Mischief Bar! I'm trying to put together a larger spinning plate of plastic with liquid crystal material sandwiched between two pieces. If you put a light source behind it and polarizers on each side (crossed), you get a totally organic kaleidoscope effect. More on that later. HR

[MAXX]

Thanx! haven't heard the vacuum spark gap, but I'll discuss it w/my mad sci friends. Yeah, taking pics of it is difficult, next time I'll try a longer exposure - iron filings, eh? Have U ever put iron filings on the magnetic strip of a credit/library or other card? They line up & U can see the actual data bits! Not going to Apo this yr, but going 2 Dreamtime instead! Really don't want to take it - it's a bit big & bulky, but I did make it so I can move it around 4 Halloween & my annual Mini Man Parties (stay tuned!) There's a mad sci club here that meets once a month in Denver - 2 bad UR in Colo Springs (in many wayz!), you'd enjoy the meetings... 1 of the guys built a solid-state TC & 1 has a TC in oil......later, MAXX

[Hot Rod- Springs RC]

Hey Maxx, thanks for posting all this info about your coil. I haven't built one in many years, but they are sooo fun! One way to get around the loud spark gap is to use a vacuum tube in place of the spark gap.

I tried to "map" the field many years ago. I used differently shaped electrodes, iron filings and different types of film to try and image the field.

On the plus side, these babies put out a lot of O3- which Europe has been been using to treat different aliments for years now.

Bring it up to Apo- I'd love to see it! I miss the Int'l Tesla Symposium they used to hold down here in Colorado Springs. After they moved the museum to Belgrade.

Thanks!

HotRod