Homemade Tesla Coil

In this post i will describe the methods i used to build my own small tesla coil. I have always been intrigued by nikola tesla and the idea of high voltage. One day after building my jacobs ladder i became obsessed with the idea of how i would build a  tesla coil, but after some research i decided it might be a tad bit difficult to do. I had no idea how to build a capacitor or how to get the amount of wire i needed. Then i had an idea, the wire i would get would be from small ac/dc converters, those little black boxes you plug things into to charge, you can see how i got the wires out of those in my post about my electric guitar.  http://matttech.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/my-guitar/ So anyway I still didnt know how to get a capacitor, well first perhaps i should tell you guys the components of a tesla coil first and then go from there.

High voltage transformer preferably between 10,000 and 15,000 volts

Capacitor

Spark gap

Primary coil

Secondary coil

First i will describe the transformer i used, i used the same transformer i used for my jacobs ladder. Which is a 10,000 volt oil burner ignition transformer, It works perfectly for my small tesla coil.

Now on to the capacitor which took me a while to figure out but essentially i made my own design, it is a leyden jar filled with salt water. What it is is a regular glass canning jar with aluminum foil taped to the outside with a wire attached to the aluminum foil. The jar is then filled with salt water and a wire comes down in through the top of the jar into the water. The purpose of the capacitor is to allow the spark gap to fire which is the next device i made.

The spark gap is a device where the electricity sparks across a gap to charge the primary coil of the tesla coil. For my spark gap i used two bolts fixed in such a way that there was a centimeter between them. Two wires attached to the bolts. You can build the spark gap in many ways, mine the two bolts are inside of a ceramic tube that i put inside a coffee can filled with fiberglass insulation for sound surpression the gap gets loud so i soundproofed it. Its really hard for me to describe my particular setup but really its a simple concept so i wont go any further.

Next ill tell how to build the secondary coil this is the high voltage one, This is the one with alot of turns of wire. I got the wire from the small transformers as i mentioned before, you can buy it if youd like im not sure the exact gauge i used, it has to be enameled wire.I wound them onto a small plastic tube, I did it by hand many people choose to build something to do it for them but i did it by hand it took quite some time i got somewheres around 400 turns of wire.  Then i wrapped the coil with electrical tape to help protect it from high voltage arcing which can ruin the coating of the wire, and possibly start a fire (learned from expeirience)

The primary coil, for this i used just regular insulated 22 gauge wire and i wrapped some more electrical tape and some saran wrap around the base of the secondary coil to prevent the aforementioned electrical arcs. Then i wrapped the insulated wire around the base i got 5 turns out of the primary coil. Then i wrapped the primary with electrcial tape to keep it in place. Then i hooked it all up almost exactly as shown in the diagram below its muched easier to show with a diagram.

I used a marble wrapped in aluminum foil for the topload of the coil, attached on the top of the primary coil as shown below. The coil produces about 100,000 volts. I can light up a flouresent tube through my body, holding the tube in one hand and touching the coil with a metal object in my other hand. I can also send electricity through the air up to two feet from the coil using another coil as a reciever i can light up a small christmas light wirelessly. Nikola tesla reportabley sent electricity more than 20 miles. The coil also acts as a rudementary radio transmitter, it can transmit upwards of a quarter mile.

This is not my image but it describes my setup pretty closley