Tesla Coil Build Thread

[Sigurthr]

Indeed, it really is quite an artform! Those who haven't made one really have no idea how much of a work of art it really is. My family doesn't really get it, I always get the same question: "Cool, but what does it do!?" I explain it is a form of power transmitter, and they say "oh, that's kind of useless". Sometimes I want to ask them what their favorite painting on the wall does, haha.

As with everything; with understanding comes (greater/deeper) appreciation. One cannot fully appreciate something without (at least partially) understanding it.

With that I say to those who have been reading this thread but have not gotten your feet wet yet, but want to... DO IT. You won't regret it, just try not to buy anything off eBay....

UPDATE: 5/14/12
I refined the spark gap a bit and did some fine tuning of the primary: 18" streamers now!
http://youtu.be/WIDBjIQMLEM

 

[vk2fro]

Glad to see you're finally getting some nice streamers out of it. I've always found TC's as fascinating as I do lasers and radio, but never gotten around to building one.

Unpredictable large arcs frighten me. It would be just my luck it would arc to some gear and destroy it, or to me (ouch) because I underestimated the streamer length. This is the same reason I dont play with MOTs, and have only really experimented with flybacks as they tend not to produce long arc that can easily jump to places they arent wanted.

Of course I have no problems blowing stuff up with heaps of amps from a capacitor bank. I'd be much more comfortable around my big bank once its built than somthing that can toss a spark 20 inches at me and bite me.

But curiosity will get the better of me and I'll probably end up building a little coil with say 5-6" streamer length

 

[Sigurthr]

Little SSTC/VTTC/OLTC coils with 6" streamers are more awesome than large >1ft streamer SGTCs in my opinion. My goal now is a nice small continuous duty quiet table top coil that I can safely have fun with. I love my SGTC but there are exposed rails carrying hundreds of times the current needed to kill you at thousands of time the volts needed to jump to a finger that is too close. It isn't the secondary output streamers you have to worry about, sure it'l hurt but I doubt you'd die. The entire exposed primary circuit is just a giant "I WILL KILL YOU".

Btw, all my equipment is unaffected at just over 6ft away. No errors, no problems. However, running it (my big SGTC) knocks out the wifi (at point of reception, not transmission) and TV in the house lol.

Tbh I've been neglecting radio a while; I had to return my borrowed HF rig and no one is on VHF on the hours I am available now lol.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Little SSTC/VTTC/OLTC coils with 6" streamers are more awesome than large >1ft streamer SGTCs in my opinion. My goal now is a nice small continuous duty quiet table top coil that I can safely have fun with. I love my SGTC but there are exposed rails carrying hundreds of times the current needed to kill you at thousands of time the volts needed to jump to a finger that is too close. It isn't the secondary output streamers you have to worry about, sure it'l hurt but I doubt you'd die. The entire exposed primary circuit is just a giant "I WILL KILL YOU".

Btw, all my equipment is unaffected at just over 6ft away. No errors, no problems. However, running it (my big SGTC) knocks out the wifi (at point of reception, not transmission) and TV in the house lol.

Tbh I've been neglecting radio a while; I had to return my borrowed HF rig and no one is on VHF on the hours I am available now lol.

SGTCs emit broadband RF interference from VLF to UHF. It's the Spark Gap that contributes to the majority of the RF noise.
Good example, when I ran my 6.5KW TC outside a few years ago, My entire block lost TV reception due to RF line noise and I permanently magnetized my Garage door relay contacts open. (Garage wouldn't close properly after running the coil ~100ft from my house) I had to get the repairman to replace the relays.
However my cheapo Digital Camera (NIKON) took a nearly direct streamer hit, within 9.5ft from the coil and still lives today. ...strange.
Another symptom of SGTCs (possibly SSTCs as well) is the ability to transmit a DC charge over a long distance. smooth metal (isolated) surfaces become quite dangerous even after the coil has been turned off. I once made the mistake of grabbing my homemade toroid for adjusting my TC topload. I received a nasty wallup being ~20" away. Nice big snap!!!

 

[Sigurthr]

Another symptom of SGTCs (possibly SSTCs as well) is the ability to transmit a DC charge over a long distance. smooth metal (isolated) surfaces become quite dangerous even after the coil has been turned off. I once made the mistake of grabbing my homemade toroid for adjusting my TC topload. I received a nasty wallup being ~20" away. Nice big snap!!!

YES, I have noticed this. However, I misinterpreted it as myself rectifying and storing a charge from the TC! It would make more sense that non-grounded metal objects (doorknobs) are being charged up.

I've still noticed that I'm a good receiver for the TC's wireless power transmissions though. If I'm insulated from ground while it is running and then touch a grounded object I get an annoying shock, even if I'm quite far away.

BTW; all SSTC work suspended until my employment status is confirmed. Could be in a week or in a month (hopefully not), just waiting on character references to finish and then a call in for a drug test.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Correct, Insulated toroids or smooth metal surfaces will pick up the electric field from quite some distance.
Good luck on the job search. Same goes for me. I am either headed to, Singapore, Brunei,
Malaysia and or possibly stay/remain in Korea for teaching work. Everything is screwed up at the moment. Got to figure things out quickly.

 

[Hiemal]

Good luck Sig, hope you get your job.

And, unfortunately for me, while winding my Tesla coil secondary I came upon the realization that I will not have enough secondary wire to finish it.

I'll either have to start over from scratch, or very carefully solder the same gauge wire from something else to finish it...

Soldering it would be easy. Just have to make sure it's extremely flat, with no pointy bits, otherwise corona will destroy it.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Good luck Sig, hope you get your job.

And, unfortunately for me, while winding my Tesla coil secondary I came upon the realization that I will not have enough secondary wire to finish it.

I'll either have to start over from scratch, or very carefully solder the same gauge wire from something else to finish it...

Soldering it would be easy. Just have to make sure it's extremely flat, with no pointy bits, otherwise corona will destroy it.

I'd strongly recommend not soldering wire onto a secondary coil. No matter how flat you make the connection that is where your loss of energy will be. There is a small chance you could be successful, but you'd have to coat the area in copious amounts of Electrical (clear) epoxy. Another idea is to make a shorter (extra coil) for a Tesla magnifier setup. Possible idea? How many turns do you have on the secondary so far ?

 

[Things]

Hey guys, just thought I'd share my latest build.

It stands about 1 metre tall, weighs absolutely nothing and has no moving parts. Heck, it doesn't have any electronics. As simple as a tesla coil can get:

Cheers,
Dan

 

[nospin]

Check out my Coil

Half a million volt Tesla Coil - YouTube

 

[Sigurthr]

Wow nice!! Is that a SRSGTC? Doesn't look like a DR with the undercarriage light and that is a lot of output for a non pole pig static SGTC.

 

[Things]

Dayam, what a beast!!

Nice work

Dan

 

[nospin]

Two MOT (Microwave Oven Transformer) power supply, 83nf tank capacitor, Asynchronous Rotary Spark Gap, 4.25x24 inch secondary, 6x24 inch toroid and half wave voltage doubler.
Florescent tubes and strike rail being hit by power arc's

 

[Sigurthr]

Very nice indeed! I had a feeling it was a rotary gap, I've never seen that kind of performance out of a static gap. That is a lot of output for only 2KVA input, or did you knock out the shunts in your MOTs?

 

[nospin]

Also a Ham Sigurthr!

No the Mot,s are factory
and in a military ammo can submerged in non detergent oil
here are some build pic,s

 

[nospin]

More pics