Tesla Forums

Hello

Introduction
My name is Ivan and I'm going my last year in Rinmangymnaiset witch is a collage in Sweden.
Every senior student has to make to do a projec that is later on showed for both teacher and younger students.
Me and some buddies of mine decied to build a Tesla coil for many reasons, both to learn  and to illuminate what a brilliant scientist/engineer Nikola Tesla was.

Question
I'v been reading alot about Tesla coils in books, on the internet , watched movies etc. But I realized that
to learn the facts aint enough to help me through and to successfully build a working tesla coil.

My core questions is:

Where do I start to find the neccesary regents?
how much will it cost?
How long does it take to build one?

The questions can go on for months, the reason to not type down the questions is to save you some time.
We were thinking of building a classic Tesla coil
Would anyone like to guide me and my buddies through tough year of scholarship

Best regards Ivan

53 views and not a single reply

Ivan,

The cost depends a lot on how many materials you can find locally, and how much construction you can do yourself.
One of the best books on classic Tesla coil construction is "High Frequency Apparatus" by Thomas Stanley Curtis:
http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com/Library/CurtisHighFrequencyApparatus/index.htm

It is amazing that the majority of this book was written by a young man as a late teenager.
By today's standards, this might be a crude coil, but it is simple for many interesting experiments and not too difficult to build.




It is made from a neon transformer - I have used both 7500V and 9000V transformers at 60mA.  The transformers charge a condenser bank, which are three .002 mfd 40kV doorknob capacitors wired in parallel.  This discharges through a tungsten spark gap into the primary of the Tesla Coil - which is made from copper ribbon.  Tubing or heavy wire would work fine for this too.  The secondary coil is only 250 turns of wire wound on a 115 mm diameter plastic pipe.  The topload is a 6" copper ball.  The coil produces a 12" discharge.

The most difficult part is finding the components.  I make most of these items here in my workshop, but if you don't have access to many tools you can still improvise a coil winding jig, etc. 

Here are some nice texts by Curtis for making hand-made components:
http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com/2008/CurtisBasics/index.htm

I would offer to trade components for Salmiak or Aakvavit, but after acquiring a freezer full from a last trade I might die before consuming all of them!  (Not to mention my wife would kill me if I got more of either) 




A similar coil made nicer is here.  It runs from a 5000V 120mA transformer, and is similar - a few hundred turns of wire and a 3" brass ball from an old bed post.  The condenser in this is made from foil and acetate, and is contained under the marble.  The spark gap is made from aluminum and 1/4" tungsten rod (element samples from Ebay). 



I used silk-covered wire for this, but it isn't necessary.  Normal magnet wire is good. 
The cost depends greatly on what you can find in your area.  A new doorknob capacitor might cost US$20 - $100 depending on how you acquire it (new, Ebay, etc.).    The same applies for the transformer, only about twice that cost.

I hope this helps some.
Jeff