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My First Tesla Coil Updates

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bomberguy92

Thu Dec 27 2007, 04:09PM

Registered Member #1181 Joined: Mon Dec 17 2007, 10:48PM
Location: Iowa USA
Posts: 17

Hey this is where I will post the updates to my progress on my first Tesla Coil
With alot of help from you guys I have started building and have gotten alot of work done on my winter break from school.

SECONDARY

I have finished my secondary and just need to put on a few more coats of varnish and seal the ends.

These are pics of my winding set up and the finished secondary. I used an old sewing machine to turn the form while I feed the wire.

bomberguy92

Thu Dec 27 2007, 04:15PM

Registered Member #1181 Joined: Mon Dec 17 2007, 10:48PM
Location: Iowa USA
Posts: 17

TOROID

This is my finished Toroid It is made of 4 inch Duckting and pietins raped in Aluminum Tape There is also a pic of the toroid sitting on top of the Secondary. There will be a standoff between the secondary and the Toroid in the finished coil

bomberguy92

Thu Dec 27 2007, 04:32PM

Registered Member #1181 Joined: Mon Dec 17 2007, 10:48PM
Location: Iowa USA
Posts: 17

SPARK GAP AND MMC

These are pics of my spark gap and MMC. The spark gap is made of 7, 3 inch sections of 1inch copper pipe zip tied to a piece of plastic fiber board. The last 2 gaps on the right are spread farther apart then the others this may need to be fixed once I get the whole coil done. In the MMC pic I and soldered on the bleed resistors and have super glued the caps to the board. I still need to solder the caps together and put in hookup terminals.

J. Aaron Holmes

Thu Dec 27 2007, 04:58PM

Registered Member #477 Joined: Tue Jun 20 2006, 11:51PM
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 546

bomberguy92 wrote ...

These are pics of my spark gap and MMC. The spark gap is made of 7, 3 inch sections of 1inch copper pipe zip tied to a piece of plastic fiber board.

Hey there! Looks like things are coming right along. You'll want to find another way to secure your spark gap electrodes, otherwise the sparks are likely to originate where the zip ties are and melt them or set them on fire! I'd recommend using a couple of machine screws to hold each electrode in place. Just snug them and don't go much further, or you will deform your electrodes. Make sure the electrodes are absolutely parallel, or else the sparking will tend to happen only in one place, fouling them rapidly and decreasing performance. You might make the holes in the base a bit oversized so that the electrodes can slide a bit, then pinch some paper or thin wood or some other uniformly thick "thing" in between the electrodes while you tighten them down to make sure they're as parallel as you can get them.

Cheers,
Aaron, N7OE

Dago

Thu Dec 27 2007, 05:48PM

Registered Member #538 Joined: Sun Feb 18 2007, 08:33PM
Location: Finland
Posts: 181

Hehe that winding machine looks ingenious :D

ArcLight

Thu Dec 27 2007, 09:14PM

Registered Member #341 Joined: Thu Mar 23 2006, 07:41PM
Location: Northern Illinois, USA
Posts: 69

Hey bomberguy92 looks like your coil is coming along nicely. However, Mr. Holmes is giving you some sound advice about the sparkgap. I made the exact same mistake my first try, and it failed just as Aaron predicted.

I can't tell for sure, but it looks like your bleeders are touching the side of the caps. I believe that this practice is considered bad form because of the potential for arcing.

I would also like to compliment your creativity in using the sewing machine as a winder.

Regards, ArcLight

Steve Ward

Thu Dec 27 2007, 10:40PM

Registered Member #146 Joined: Sun Feb 12 2006, 04:21AM
Location: Austin Tx
Posts: 1055

One other thing about that spark gap: the gap spacing is gigantic! I usually use something like a credit card (probably about 30 mils thick) to space my gaps. An easy and fast way to assemble one of these gaps is to use epoxy to hold the copper tubes down to your insulating base. Using some card-stock (maybe 2-3 layers) as spacers you can glue down the entire spark gap in one go, and have the gaps almost perfectly spaced and parallel. I think i used "marine" epoxy when i did my old gaps, and it seemed to hold up fine to the heat.

To be sure your spark gap isnt set too wide, test it with only the NST connected across it. If the NST cant fire across the gap, then its too big. Note that when you hook up your tank capacitor to the NST, you often get a possible boost in open circuit output voltage, and it will *seem* that everything is OK (since it might spark over the gap) but you are then stressing the insulation of the transformer as well as your capacitor voltage rating. So always check the spark gap spacing with ONLY the transformer hooked up to it.

bomberguy92

Thu Dec 27 2007, 11:58PM

Registered Member #1181 Joined: Mon Dec 17 2007, 10:48PM
Location: Iowa USA
Posts: 17

Thanks for the advice I will go and fix my spark gap.

bomberguy92

Fri Dec 28 2007, 07:18PM

Registered Member #1181 Joined: Mon Dec 17 2007, 10:48PM
Location: Iowa USA
Posts: 17

BASE, MMC

I have finished the base of my Coil in the picture the weights are claping it down while the glue dries. I have also finished the MMC. Is ArcLight right about it being bad for the resistors to be touching the caps? also I have put about 6 or 7 coats of varnish on my secondary I have plenty more if I need it but will that be enought to protect it? I also have a pic of my secondary and Toroid just sitting on base to get a size prospective. The coil is a little taller in the picture then it will be when it is done final hight will be right around 3 feet.

...

Fri Dec 28 2007, 08:22PM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

The resistors should be fine, but that big cast iron weight? there will absorb energy that should go into the primary hurting performance.

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