If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
Registered Member #242
Joined: Thu Feb 23 2006, 11:37PM
Location: Erie PA
Posts: 210
I started my first tesla coil a couple weeks ago. I've been wanting to build one for a couple of years now.
The secondary My dad had an old wood lathe lying around that worked out nicely. unfortunitly there was no motor, so I had to rig up my own. I had to rig up 2 different motors. I used this geared induction motor to spin the form when I was applying the fiberglass resin. Then I used this one (12VDC) to spin the coil to wind the secondary. It was orignally to be used for some sort of turntable/rotating display case, so it involved alittle more work. (yeah its pretty ugly looking but it got the job done). I also used some reusable test plugs to hold the form in the lathe The finished product:
The Primary 15 turns of 10 gauge solid copper at a 30 deg. angle. I probably made the supports alittle too big, but I wasnt sure what the final design would be so I left some room for modifications. The primary supports are made from some 3/4" and 3/8" ply. For some reason I thought I'd be able to fish all 50' through solid holes in the form. I made it to about 5 turns before I got fed up with it and dremeled some slots so I could just lay the wire in there.
Registered Member #223
Joined: Mon Feb 20 2006, 06:42PM
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 125
Wow.. Nice start for your first TC. I am a little concerned about using wood as the primarily supports. Wood can be somewhat unpredictable when it comes to its insulation properties. However I don't think it will be a problem. Nice winding rig too.. I'm usually to lazy to even try to jimmy rig something up to wind my coils. (Winding coils by hand sucks but the payoff is usually worth it.)
Have you thought about what kind of power supply, tank capacitor, spark gap, etc you plan on running?
Registered Member #135
Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735
I really don't like wood for a primary support either, but have used it many times in the past. Be careful about humidity.
Recently on my model coil I used little plastic supports, but these had to be screwed into the wood, and with the close proximity of the lasercap plate, I had a 3" arc shoot through the wood and hit the cap once in a while. I'm trying to do some plastic coil form a lot like what you're doing right now, but with an exponential curve, just to be different.
Registered Member #242
Joined: Thu Feb 23 2006, 11:37PM
Location: Erie PA
Posts: 210
I'm still thinking about the gap type. I might go with an async. setup (since I dont have a sync. motor) if I can find a nice disk to use. I'm still trying to find some caps to use. I thought I had some with electronics goldmine, but I guess they wont work. I have a post over in the TC section about this. I'm going to be picking up a 15kV 30mA nst from someone from another messageboard as well.
Registered Member #229
Joined: Tue Feb 21 2006, 07:33PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 506
Try some homemade caps until you will get the right MMC. A static multigap can be a good first choice too. After you get the first light, you can make a lot of improvements.
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.
My first Tesla Coil
