Small Tesla Coil

My first Tesla coil. It was inspired by an article in the March 1995 issue of Electronics World & Wireless World.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Tesla
• High
• Voltage
• Science

[gizmoguyar]

Wow nice job. I'm trying to learn about tesla coils so that I can make my own, however I'm confused about how to ground the secondary coil. All the information I can find says "hammer a copper rod at least two feet in to the ground".

Yours obviously works well... How did you ground yours?

[teralabUK]

Thanks. I connected it to mains earth. I don't recommend this however, because the RF current will flow in the mains system which could cause problems with other equipment. A dedicated ground spike would be better. I love your potato guns by the way.

[spirosgreco]

ok....how much does this simple tesla coils costs?

[teralabUK]

It didn't cost me anything because I built it from parts I had lying around.

[powermaks]

nice coil, but it seems your secondary coil is made from a too thin a gauge wire (30 aug) that is way too thin. no wonder it's arcing over, it should be anything between 28aug-22aug or thicker but it wont be compact.

[teralabUK]

Hi, The 'ball' acts as a capacitor and can be used to tune the secondary. I don't know what the transformer came out of.

[o0JohnnyReb0o]

Thanks, and why don't you put a screw at the top of the secondary ? I know someone who did this and it works well but I read somewhere that it is bad for the insulation ... I'm actually building a tesla coil and I hesitate between a screw and a ball. What is your gardners transformer from ? Is it from neon sign ?

[teralabUK]

The secondary is wound on a 200mm length of 40mm diameter waste pipe using 0.26mm diameter enameled copper wire. The primary has 2 turns, but the important thing is that the secondary circuit has the same resonant frequency as the primary circuit.

[o0JohnnyReb0o]

What diameter is the secondary tube and wire ?

Is the primary just 1 turn ?

[teralabUK]

Thanks. The capacitors are by Plastic Capacitors Inc. There is an OF 50-503 50nF 5000V in series with an OF 40-104 100nF 4000V. The transformer is a Gardners GR43007 4000V @ 10mA. I naughtily connected 240V to the 220V tap to get a bit more output.