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Registered Member #2587
Joined: Wed Dec 30 2009, 05:01PM
Location: Rochester ny
Posts: 2
Hello all, I'm new to Tesla Coils and struggling to come up with a good design and would really appreciate your input. My goal is to build a 4" diameter coil. The biggest problem I am having right now is capacitance and secondary wire gauge. I will be using a 12kv 30ma NST, either 28ga or 24ga secondary, 1/4" copper tubing Primary, 4" X 24" or so PVC and (for now) saltwater caps until I can afford to build an MMC. Can I use 28ga or is 24ga a better choice? (I already have 2000 ft of 28ga and would have to order the 24) also, I made 6 wine bottle caps and plan to run 2 parallel strings of 3 in series. Is this enough or too much capacitance? I found an online calculator to calculate the uf of laden jar caps but until I get another empty wine bottle that I can smash open to measure the thickness of it's glass, the calculator is useless. Besides, I haven't learned enough yet to even know how much capacitance I will need. I will appreciate any help I can get. And please, don't get the wrong idea. I'm not at all interested in someone just telling me how to build a coil. I am deeply passionate and committed to learning so if you can answer my questions I would really appreciate it if you could also include an explanation. Like how much uf I need and why. If not, I would also appreciate any straight answers as well. I'm learning a lot more every day and will eventually understand all this anyway. I have just always learned better hands on. Thank you in advance for all your help. I hope I too can soon be a contributing member of this forum.
Registered Member #2390
Joined: Sat Sept 26 2009, 02:04PM
Location: Milwaukee Wisconsin
Posts: 381
I always say this but, download wintesla!! Its free and it will answer those questions for you! Good luck with the coil! It may be tricky but its worth it!! By the way, welcome to the forum!! I appreciate the end of your post, i began the same way. Hands on is by far the best way for me to learn as well. Wintesla will give you what you want by entering the info you already know, such as coil diameter and wire gauge. Give it a try, just google it!
Registered Member #2587
Joined: Wed Dec 30 2009, 05:01PM
Location: Rochester ny
Posts: 2
Thank you all for your advice! I downloaded WinTesla and it looks a little easier to use than TeslaMap which I already paid $2 to download but I'm sure I'll probably find a use for it once I'm a little more educated. And I had already found the JavaScript one, that's actually the online Layden Jar calculator I was talking about. Right now the capacitor is my biggest hurdle. Everyone seems to be turning to MMC's but as far as I can tell these things are constructed of many series of paralleled strings of $5 caps! I figured I would need at least 60 of them and I'll tell you if that's the case then it will be quite some time before I'm able to do that. Unless you guys know something I don't, like where to buy them much cheaper? Even a dollar a piece would be doable. For now, as I'm educating myself I'll just stick to what I know best and begin the physical construction of the coil. I'll fill in all the technical details once I'm able. Thanks
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TC Design Help (Caps and Wire gauge)
