I built a 1.35 meg-volt Tesla Scroll in my lawn without killing myself.

Writer's annotation: This is an extremely dated article written in high school.

Invented by the vivid scientist Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), the Tesla Ringlet is a high-voltage, loftier-frequency ability generator. Tesla designed it to broadcast wireless electricity, but due to its poor efficiency right now they're just to look cool.

With this device, Tesla was able to generate voltages of such magnitude, they would shoot out of the apparatus as bolts of lightning! The sight of writhing streamers of electricity jumping through the air is admittedly spectacular. Today, Tesla Coils are built past amateurs all over the world for one reason simply – the thrill of making your very own lightning!

Tesla Coils were also popularized in the 90s by the hit video game, Red Alert. In the game, Tesla Coils were used past the Soviet Union as weapons to produce extremely high and lethal voltages.

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Materials

Lots of Capacitors Aluminium Air Duct
Neon Sign Transformer Copper Pipe
High Voltage Copper Wires Fish Tank Tubing
Sheets of Acrylic Flexible Copper Tubing
Aluminium U Profiles Lots Bolts/Nuts/Wire Lugs/Etc
Lots of Resistors Electrical Tape
Pie Dishes Aluminium Foil Tape
PVC Tubes PVC End-Caps
Polyurethane Varnish AWG24 Wire
Drill Soldering Kit
Hammer Threaded Rods
L-Shaped Metal Pieces Rulers
Loftier Density Polyethylene
(Chopping Board)		 Cooling Fan
Saw Fuse Holder
Wooden Blocks Spray Pigment
Wooden Boards Likewise Much Spare Time
Motivational Posters Money
Single Relationship Status

Construction

Every bit a disclaimer, the structure of a Tesla Coil is circuitous and involved. It is costly, time-consuming, dangerous and requires tremendous motivation. There are technical skills involved and a skillful knowledge in physics and mathematics is essential. Information technology'due south all-time that nosotros break downward the construction into its different components.

Ability Supply/Transformer

Perhaps the most important component of a Tesla Curlicue is its power supply, and also probably the hardest to obtain. The specifications of the power supply affects all the other components and the overall size of the Tesla Coil.

The power supply basically converts the voltage from the mains (240V) to the extremely high voltages required past the Tesla Coil.

Generally, amateurs await for a few type of transformers.

Neon Sign Transformers (NSTs) are probably the most popular. They tin exist obtained from neon sign shops. The toll tin can be from $30 to over $100, depending on the condition and ratings. They mostly range from 6000V to 15000V, with nigh 30mA. In that location are 2 kinds of Neon Sign Transformers, i is iron cored and runs at 50Hz, while the other is the new smaller switchmode one which run at 20kHz and is a lot lighter. The heavy iron-cored ones normally perform better.

The ultimate transformer would exist a Pole Sus scrofa. These are used by your local government agencies to deliver the power to the metropolis. They can exist found, well, up loftier on the poles that evangelize your electricity. They weigh about 200kg, and so if you're going to steal 1, be prepared with a crane or something. Too, you may desire to have an electrician with y'all when y'all run the Tesla Scroll at home, as your excursion breakers will blow easily due to the high current these guys require. Basically, don't carp.

I called up a Neon Sign shop and they indeed had used/former NSTs for sale. I visited them and picked up one at Southward$45. If you don't know how to operate i, information technology's best that you inquire the shop to demonstrate. They're deceiving pocket-sized; They counterbalance quite heavy, coming in at about 8kg to 20kg, and my arms were sore after carrying it habitation on public transport.

First, some details of my transformer, forth with the specifications my tesla coil has to meet.

My NST outputs 15kV and 30mA.

Going into further details…

Using this formula, I worked out that my Tesla Gyre can achieve spark lengths of upwardly to 91.64 cm. At present, it won't go to anywhere close to this value, but it but gives a rubber estimate of the space I need to behave the tests.

Capacitor Banking concern

Each tesla coil has to have a capacitor banking company. This stores the power needed for the tesla coil to discharge. Three types of capacitor banks tin can be built, including a completely home-made one consisting of beer bottles and some stuff. Only the easiest method would be a Multi Mini Capacitor (MMC) design. A lot of factors has to be considered for the MMC.

Get-go, you gotta know the peak voltage the capacitor banking concern has to handle.

While my transformer outputs 15000V, the voltage is able to peak upwardly to 21213V!

Then you have to choose the type of capacitor.

I chose a 1500VDC, 0.047uF Polypropylene Capacitor because they're the the virtually value for money, ie. best uF per dollar.

At present considering my MMC has to store 21213V at to the lowest degree, I figured that the voltages accept to be split by the capacitors when they're placed in series. I plan to arrange 15 of these caps in series, calculation up to a total of 22500V that it tin handle.

Using the formula above, I calculated that my transformer requires a capacitor bank of 0.0064uF. Withal, this is only the Resonant Cap value. To exist on the safer side, we would want a LTR (Larger-Than-Resonant) value. This value is dependent on whether you lot use a static spark gap or a SRSG (Synchronous rotary spark gap) which I volition elaborate more subsequently. I will be using a static gap, so the LTR value is 0.0095uF.

The calculated total capacitance of one 'string' of fifteen caps is just the rated capacitance of each cap (ie. 0.045uF) divided by the number of caps in the string (ie. fifteen), so each of my string has 0.00313uF. To produce 0.0095uF, I would need roughly 3 strings.

Then information technology's 3 strings of xv caps, giving a g total of 45 caps needed.

For each cap, a resistor has to be attached likewise. Bleed resistors are employed to safely discharge each capacitor to permit for safe handling while tuning and transporting the whorl. I chose a 10MOhm 0.5W 3500VDC resistor.

The overall pattern for my capacitor banking concern is as follows:

After I completed the capacitor bank, snapping photos along the way, for some reason, the images of the construction of the capacitor bank went missing, maybe deleted/formatted, and my data recovery software wasn't able to get them back.

So, I can't really show pictures of how I did the capacitor bank, just I'll try my best to put it downward in words.

Ok, I drew out the layout of the capacitors on a A4 paper. Then I estimated the size of the banking concern, ownership 3 pieces of acrylic of that size.

One piece of acrylic will be used to mountain the capacitors. Holes were drilled where the ends of the capacitor were. The contact points of the capacitors were fitted through these holes to secure them firmly to the acrylic.

My soldering skills were horrible, so I had a difficult time trying to solder the contact points together to grade the strings of capacitors.

The resistors were then added across each capacitor. In one case again, with soldering involved, the chore was pretty badly done.

Finally, I drilled holes at the 4 corners of the 3 pieces of acrylic. These will be used to fit the bolts and nuts through.

The other 2 pieces of acrylic are meant to cover the capacitors for safety reasons. One covers the back with all the contact points and soldering, while the other piece covers the front, protecting me from the capacitors and them from me.

The capacitor bank lies in the portion of the tesla curl excursion where both the voltage and current are high. A thick well-insulated copper wire is require.

I measured out the needed length for the capacitor banking company. The blank copper core was exposed at the different points of termination of the strings of capacitors. The end contact point was fastened with a wire lug.

My soldering job looks like it was done by a 5-yr-old.

And finally taping all the bare wiring up. It's completed! Top view, revealing the capacitors.

Total cost of the capacitor bank is over $100. Just it's much cheaper than buying a commercial pulse capacitor.

A week or so later on, I decided to give the unfinished Tesla Coil a trial run. It turned out horrible.

The zig-zag arrangement was a dumb determination, with the current preferring to spark through the dielectric air than become through the capacitors.

Arcing was occurring betwixt two adjacent points in the capacitor banking company, much thanks to the horrible design by Yours Truly. I could add an insulating layer between the entire cord of caps, merely the spacing was so pocket-sized that I couldn't find a suitable cloth.

And and so I decided to rebuild the unabridged matter. That was the last thing in my mind when I idea about the options, only I didn't accept a pick, it seems.

Spent most an hour or two unsoldering all the capacitors and resistors, and had my Dad to purchase me new pieces of acrylic. This time, it won't be in a zig-zag manner, it'll only grade three straight strings of caps.

It took a while to drill, but as I've done it before, information technology was slightly easy and faster…

And so I proceeded to insert the caps in, soldering them together.

And of course, calculation the resistors…

The connections at the end are fabricated past soldering a thick wire to the 3 contact points.

Wiring

For tesla coils in full general, thick well-insulated copper wires are required due to the loftier amount of current and voltage passing through. The amount of candy copper in the wire makes it actually expensive. I asked for 1 with a bore betwixt six-8mm, 7m of it, and the guy gave me a seven.2mm one and quoted $47. I couldn't afford to pay that much for the wiring lone, so I asked for another smaller 1. It's near iii-4mm, not quite what I wanted, but half the cost. So $20+ for thick wiring.

And so when I did some other exam run, this happened:

No sparks at the discharge concluding, simply at the primary scroll instead!

As you can see from the above picture, the arcing is actually at the wire. Yes, the twenty,000 Volts just jumped right through the insulation of the wire. I idea it was rather thick actually, only no, I should have gotten HV Wires (High Voltage) but that'south pretty expensive.

So to solve this, I bought some fish tank tubing to thread over the wires, equally extra insulation. All wirings are now insulated with fish-tank tubing.

Discharge Terminal

At the tiptop of a Tesla Coil is a discharge final, which is exactly what information technology does. I, as the name suggests, is to deed as the output terminal for the streamer discharges, and the other is every bit a capacitive load for the secondary curlicue.

There can be two shapes: A toroid or a sphere. I'thousand not aware of the departure and pros and cons between the two, but I take no idea how to get about making a large metallic sphere. So a toroidal pattern is chosen.

A commercial aluminum toroid would come in at a few hundred, if not thousand of dollars. A homemade one comes in at about $twoscore.

This is how I go most doing my toroid.

iii things. Aluminum air ducts, I got 3m of it. Quite expensive at $30+. And then aluminum tape. These are about $10. And lastly, pie dishes, dirt inexpensive.

Drill a couple of holes at the centre and near the edges of the pie dishes, and then tighten them together with bolts and basics.

Mensurate out the required length of the aluminum air duct and cut it out. I used the aluminum tape to tape up the ends of the air duct, forming a tight fit around the pie dishes.

I smoothened the appearance of the toroid adding tapes from the aluminum air duct to the pie dishes.

Secondary Coil

The secondary coil is one hell of a matter.

Information technology is responsible for generating the very high voltages required and its construction is extremely tedious.

First, a coil form is required. The wires coiling nigh a thousand turns volition completely wrap the scroll form, which has to be of an insulating material. Metal pipes are totally out of the question for obvious reasons. Water is a performance killer, so cardboards are avoided too. Virtually plastic materials would practise fine. Mostly, PVC pipes are used considering they are easy to find. Some tesla coilers have attempted and succeeded, to gyre the wiring around a curl form and remove it birthday, but that'south across my capability for now.

Black PVCs must be avoided considering they contain carbon, grey works, only white does the best chore.

I bought a iii-inch PVC pipe, 2 anxiety of it. When buying the ringlet form, it is of import to cull the correct length for it will heavily affect the height of the coil. Too high, too bulky; Too short, the tesla curlicue is capable of hit itself. The diameter-to-top ratio comes into play here. I had a calculation fault, so I resulted in a weird ane:6.67 ratio. Pretty bad for my coil I approximate, because the recommendation is between 1:iii to 1:6 ratio.

Before we begin, information technology is advisable to glaze the coil form with polyurethane varnish.

A layer or ii was applied and afterward information technology dried, I went straight to wounding the wires.

A few things to take note. Nosotros should exist aiming between 800 to 1200 turns, any college or lower seems to decrease the output (either due to increased resistance or low inductance). I'g aiming for g turns.

I bought 0.5kg of 0.5mm (AWG 24) wire (quite expensive at $30+). 1000 turns should give 20-inches.

The wounding is ho-hum. I'm looking for a word with similar significant to tedious, but with a greater degree of suffering. But deadening would do for at present. To give you some perspective, here's the procedure:

To begin, I found a towel hanger matter lying effectually. Ok, not exactly "lying around", just it took information technology from my mom.

Tearing it autonomously, and reconstructing it, I got this picayune innovative thing.

The winding was incredibly boring, insofar that I resorted to this.

I spent v-6 tiresome hours winding and winding. For entertainment, I had the the thing done in front of my computer every bit I watch all the remaining episodes of CSI and Lost I had left.

Started at 5pm, and almost 11pm, it was this:

I calculated, and I figured that I wounded about 240m of copper wiring. Oh the pain!

I started off pretty well actually, with the windings nice and tight. I lost my patience midway and it got sloppy from there. Hopefully, information technology won't affect the performance of the coil too much.

I haven't finalized the design of how the secondary roll is going to be attached to the toroid, just information technology should look similar this.

As I mentioned earlier, I found out that the number of turns on my secondary coil was besides big, nigh a 1000 turns. This gives too high of a form-diameter-to-coil-length ratio of 6.67. The recommended maximum ratio is 6, which I'g mode above. I decided to spent a while uncoiling the turns to give a eighteen-inch coil length from 20-inch.

Secondary coil'due south termination is washed past attaching it to some aluminium tape, and using a hole puncher to allow connection to wire lug end of the ground wire.

Footing Rod

The ground rod, fifty-fifty though information technology sounds insignificant, plays a major role. Most components are required to exist grounded, not only for safety reasons but for them to work. I decided to have a single ground rod with many connections to it, as I didn't desire besides many rods to hammer into the ground.

I started with a thick length of copper wire and a foot long of 1-inch copper piping.

I only drilled the copper piping, fitted in a bolt and nut, and attached the copper wire with a wire lug at the end.

The ground rod would be hammered into the ground, deeply and deeply.

Spark Gap

The Spark Gap acts as the power switch for the primary tank circuit. It uses the air to conduct electricity betwixt its electrodes and generates a great deal of rut in the process.

Sounds simple plenty, but the Spark Gap is the single component I spent the most time on. About twenty hours hands. There are many designs of Spark Gaps out there, and it was pretty hard to decide on ane.

There are 2 chief types of Spark Gaps. A static one which does not involve any motility of electrodes, hence the name. And an exotic type that involves the electrodes rotating to provide better operation. The schematics for the rotating spark gap was also complicated, so I settled on a Static Spark Gap.

The design for a Static Spark Gap could vary from a simple one like:

However, the gap is commonly split into lots of smaller gaps, all wired together in series. This is done for two reasons; 1) The more gaps you have the more power it tin can handle; ii) Information technology is possible to vary the firing voltage of the gap by irresolute the number of electrodes that are in excursion (past moving the connecting wires).

In doing this, you become a Multi Series Static Spark Gap, which was what I chose to built. This design for this varies a lot, and it makes a big difference in price, efficiency, feasibility, fourth dimension spent, etc. Unlike people would have different preferences in the large number of designs available. After hours of searching the web, I found a pattern that appealed to me. It's by a guy chosen Scott. Which Scott, I don't know, only how many Scott's are in that location who'southward a Tesla Coiler?

And so, I got started on it.

Two pieces of clear acrylic, drilled, and supported by threaded rods at the 4 corners. The threaded rods were really irritating to saw and file.

I found Aluminium U-Profiles of the correct size! In one case once again, sawing was really a pain.

And adjustment them…

The electrodes! Copper pipes, held from the acrylic past Aluminium U-Profiles.

Afterward hours and hours of drilling…

The last assembled Multi Series Static Spark Gap! The connections were attached to the bolts and nuts supporting the copper pipe and U-profiles.

Then more than frustration. In i of the test runs, while putting away the setup to conclude the twenty-four hour period, I dropped the Spark Gap. It bankrupt quite badly and looked like it's completely out of order. I spent over a whole afternoon and probably more than on that spark gap, something similar 6 hours of continuous tedious technical work, and seeing information technology break was a totally sucky feeling.

I had to build another, but I told myself, "no mode not some other half dozen hours of drilling, sawing, etc," and so I improvised. Came up with a new design, and with it, had a chance to made things amend.

I found these L-shaped metal pieces somewhere in the business firm, and came up with a thought. I asked my Dad for more than, and he took out an entire box of it.

And I bought two solid plastic rulers to act as the back up, and information technology also provides precise measurements for the distance of the spark gap.

The spark gap has to be tuned to allow the Tesla Coil to achieve its maximum performance.

To do this, I connected the spark gap only to the 15000V transformer. From there, I adjusted the distance betwixt the electrodes such that I achieve the maximum distance of the spark gap, which corresponds to the maximum voltage passing through.

Primary Coil

The main coil and the main tank capacitor form the principal resonant circuit. For proper operation, a Tesla Ringlet must have identical primary and secondary resonant frequencies.

At that place's not a lot you lot can say about my primary coil. Basically, information technology's a whorl of copper pipage, wound in a flat pancake spiral. The diameter of the inner-most turn should be ii inches greater than the diameter of the secondary roll, and it spirals out keeping a 1/iv inch gap between adjacent turns. The total number of turns required depends on the values of the other circuit components, merely a maximum of 10-xv turns would be a good number.

Copper tubing, usually used for central heating systems, is ideal for making primary coils. It has a large, smooth, surface area which is platonic for high frequency/high voltage use and it's easy to bend by hand.

A good material for mounting high voltage components on is loftier density polyethylene (HDPE), and it'due south piece of cake to go concur of in the grade of a chopping boards. This is what I volition exist using to support the tubing. If you use wood, it should be dried out and sealed with varnish to ensure information technology acts as an insulator.

First, I cut out strips of HDPE with a saw.

Post-obit which, I drilled holes in all the strips which will be where the copper tubings become through.

So I sat down in front of the Telly and started to thread the supports through the copper roll.

And so it's done!

Many weeks subsequently, when I successfully tested the tested coil, I managed to attain 25-27 cm arcs… merely the performance of the tesla coil was limited.

The problem was with the master coil. I had the primary roll tapped at roll number 8, with improving performance every bit the number of turns increment. My primary coil, sadly enough, was a total of only eight turns. My tesla coil's functioning was bottlenecked past, of all things, my main coil!

If I had a longer copper tubing, thus more turns in the primary roll, I should exist able to squeeze out a lot more operation. Information technology'due south a big pity that the Primary Gyre is limiting me from achieving resonance.

So, I bought a new fifty-foot copper tubing for my new primary coil. Compared to my xviii-foot old chief coil, this should never run out of turns for me to tap from.

Spent an entire afternoon working at information technology. After four hours of sawing, drilling, hammering.

I did do it a picayune dissimilar this time, because I learned from experience. Threading through the supports was going to exist painfully tediously, then I got smart and did information technology a unlike way. Instead of threading information technology through, I but made tight ridges with pocket-sized openings in the supports. From there, I tin can but push in the copper tubes to fit nicely into the supports' ridges.

There are two electrical connections to exist fabricated to the main ringlet; a fixed connexion at one terminate of the coil and a movable borer bespeak, to connect to any point on the coil. This is what enables us to tune the frequency of the primary tank circuit to lucifer the natural resonance of the secondary excursion.

The moveable main tap connection was made from a fuse holder. Information technology was designed to take fuses simply with a bit of careful bending with pliers, a skilful connection to the copper pipe is possible. It actually took a lot of modifications for me to get information technology to connect well with the thick copper wire.

The fixed connectedness is made by twisting the inner stop of the copper tubing downwards, and I taped on a wire lug to ensure expert electrical contact.

Stand up

I decided to build a proper stand for easier setup, improve looks, and more manageable for storage when I'm done with information technology. And so a few weeks ago (well-nigh a month really), I got my Dad to practise upward a stand for it. I described to him what I wanted: Two-decks, 4 supports, on wheels.

Afterward a week or two, he got it washed, simply I kept requesting for minor fixes and changes. Information technology was looking actually ugly with yellow, white, grey and brown. The iv supports are PVC pipes, and the wooden blocks are used to agree things in place.

If in that location's one thing I learned from Apple's iPod, it'll be that Immaculate White looks awesome.

S$9.00 on white spray paint. Stupid iPods didactics stupid things.

I spent most 2 days mounting the Tesla Roll permanently into the stand. I had to drilled more holes, add more wooden blocks to hold stuffs in place, drill in hooks, accommodate the length of wires to fit the structure nicely, etc, and finally spray painting it white again.

The design had features and stuffs that include:

A hook to concord the long ground wire and the ground copper rod. So it's much more manageable and convenient at present.

The 15kV transformer, Spark Gap and Capacitor Bank arranged nicely in place in the lower deck. All cables are insulated with fish tank tubing, and adjusted shorter to go on it neat and tidy. The transformer is besides on wheels, equally I can't move the Tesla Whorl setup with it on. The transformer lone is mayhap heavier than the remainder of the Tesla Coil.

The toroid mounted firmly on tiptop of the secondary whorl.

The primary curl is supported by 4 PVC pipes.

And finally, the fully completed setup of the Tesla Curlicue.

Beauty, isn't information technology?

Tests

I made a lot of exam runs with the whole setup assembled, and well-nigh one-half of them were failures. But I will non certificate all of them. Instead, only the successful tests are constitute below.

Test 1: First Light

After encountering so many problems and setbacks with all the previous test runs, I entered this examination with the mindset that it's-gonna-exist-another-trial-run-with-issues-which-I-take-to-fix.

The spark gap was not tuned at all, but I fired up the total setup anyhow. Principal coil was tapped at turn 7. Information technology was quite late, about 8pm+, only I needed the darkness.

…and Power Upwards!

The spark gap was sparking very loud; dangerous thing to stare at every bit it produces ultraviolet rays. But the awesome spark at the discharge terminal is much, much more than beautiful.

A zoomed-in image.

Wonderful performance! Finally, start calorie-free from the discharge terminal!

With proper tuning, I'm pretty sure it's operation can maxed out at about 3-v times of this trial run.

I measured the diameter of the toroid discharge terminal, compared it to the spark length in the photo, and estimated information technology to exist a 8 cm.

As I exercise not have admission to whatever feasible method of measuring the extremely high voltage, allow'southward make some rough estimates.

In an electric field (generated by the toroid-shaped discharge terminal), the electric breakup of air corresponds to roughly thirty,000 V/cm.

The 8 cm arc photographed is therefore about 240,000 V. This is, of course, quite inaccurate equally the value differs with many factors such as electric field, shape of electrodes, atmospheric conditions, etc.

In theory, it is also possible to work out the voltage by calculations. This will only give the maximum output voltage only, which I hope to achieve afterward I'm washed tuning the coil.

Using, Vmax = Vcap * (Eff * Lsec/Lpri)^0.5

Efficiency of the scroll is taken to be a reasonable 85%.
Inductance of secondary coil, Lsec, is calculated to be viii.38mH = 8380uH.
Inductance of master coil, Lpri, is calculated to be xiii.05uH.

Vmax = 21200 V * (0.85*8380/13.05)^0.5 Vmax = 495,300 V

This formula somehow gives my coil a poor max spark length of 16 cm. When using another formula (available in a higher place, under Ability Supply/Transformer), it worked out to be 91.64 cm.

Test 2: Limited past Primary Coil

6pm, I decided to elevate my whole Tesla Coil setup outside. Fixed up some stuffs, prepare the camera, warned my siblings/parents about the racket I was going to create, hammered in the ground rod…

By and so, it turned dark…

I always hate hammering the ground rod. My backyard garden qualifies as a golf course now.

The breakout point is just an uninteresting aluminum rod taped to the toroid. The streamers would erupt from this breakout point, rather than sparking around randomly.

And I fired it upwards!

Stupid me. I didn't even connect the Primary Tap to the Main Coil. The consequence? Serious sparking as the current attempts to complete the circuit.

What I found incredible was that, despite the massive energy loss in the sparking, the coil was running! See the top for the breakout point faintly arcing to the grounded rod on the correct.

Then I fixed the Main Tap problem and tried again.

Racing sparks appeared. This happens when there's a spark from the primary coil to the secondary scroll. And for over a while (through many attempts), it became a serious event.

Racing sparks occur when a gyre has one or more of the post-obit:

– Overly high coupling
– Overpowered system
– Poor quenching in the spark gap
– Out of tune, also large toroid
– Overly large primary cap

Doesn't matter which mine happens to autumn into, only I didn't like information technology.

I had no choice just to alter the level of the Main Roll, making information technology lower. That would be dealing abroad with the PVC Pipes supports (which I spent lots of endeavour into) and going back to temporary supports.

And it worked perfect!

I decided to place a Fluorescent Lamp next to the setup. Information technology's completely not connected to anything. Just lying there. And MAGIC!

Okay not really if y'all know a thing or two nigh electric fields.

The electric fields of Tesla Coils (aye, even the homemade ones) are know to be so powerful that it can interfere with Goggle box signals and render any digital devices you're wearing useless. About commercial Tesla Coils are placed in a Faraday'due south Cage, as such.

With everything FINALLY working (almost over an hour), it was time for tedious tuning.

I had to tune the Primary Coil's frequency to friction match the Secondary Coil'south, so that they are in resonance, producing maximum ability. This is done by irresolute the position of the Chief Tap at different points in the Main Curl.

And I started to tune, and removing the breakout point…

And dorsum with the breakout point in position:

Usually, Tesla Coilers accept to find the perfect number of turns to tap the Primary Scroll at. Too many turns, or too piffling, resonance will non exist achieved.

Mine was a different case. It started like this…

When I went out to purchase the components for my Coil, I bought the Flexible Copper Tubing to brand the Primary Coil from some old lady. Previously, I was told that the toll of copper has sky-rocketed in recent years. She charged me $12 per meter, I bought $66 worth of information technology.

When I did my Primary Coil, it gave me 8 turns, which is quite little. But I guess, I couldn't beget more. One day, I was told that I could go the Copper Tubing at $25 for 50 human foot. And that the old lady cheated me.

Grah. I could have gotten over twice the number of turns with $25, as compared to 8 miserable turns with $25.

Back to where we were, and then, I realised that the performance of the Tesla Ringlet increases with number of turns. At turn 7, a spark of 25cm was achieved.

So I had the Primary Tap at Turn 8, the maximum.

If I had a longer copper tubing, thus more turns in the principal coil, I should be able to squeeze out a lot more performance. It's a big pity that the Master Coil is limiting me from achieving resonance.

As much every bit I wanted to terminate the Tesla Whorl project in one case and for all today, I think it'due south wiser if I go a new longer tubing, and melody the Scroll to it'due south maximum functioning, and not limited by the primary turns. So this project volition be extended again.

Today'south maximum spark was near 25-27 cm! With my Coil at 450W, I should get at to the lowest degree 40-50 cm sparks. But it'southward the all-time functioning so far.

The sound from the Tesla Coil is frighteningly loud. I managed to run it quite a lot of times today (over 10 times, I believe) because the neighbours on the right were away from dwelling house. I forgotten about the neighbours on the left, so they heard it and thought information technology was their house alarm (Yes! THAT loud.). So they removed the batteries from their house alarm, and went back to doing their stuffs. Imagine what happened when they found me. Urggh.

Here are the results for today!

Test 3: Finale

Within weeks of Test 2, I fixed the master coil by making a brand new i. Nevertheless, information technology was going to be months earlier I could do whatever tests with the new master coil due to all my commitments and school work.

When the June holidays came, my family unit decided to get on a trip to Europe, thereby postponing my plans to finally consummate the Tesla Coil, in one case and for all.

And so, another three months afterwards, came the September holidays. Perfect.

I took out the Tesla Coil, covered with a visible layer of dust subsequently being untouched for SEVEN months.

The copper of primary curlicue was evidently oxidised, with a darker and less reflective appearance. This may subtract the performance, just I went ahead anyway.

Also, the spark gap became loose. I didn't want to waste any time tuning it to perfection and maximum performance again, so I simply tightened it and continued it into the the arrangement.

Afterwards some thorough cleaning upward, I brought the setup out to the fill-in and I was good to become!

The Tesla Scroll started off with a really weak display…

Then I adjusted the chief tap to tune the gyre…

I went from Turn 9.five to 8.v, and found that it increased the operation quite significantly. I went on to 7.five, but the performance dropped, but not as much every bit if it were in Plough 9.5

So I estimated that the ideal tap location is somewhere betwixt Turn vii.5 and 8.5, so I moved on to Turn 8.

From here, the fine tuning shows very slight improvements, if any at all. Just I thought Turn eight looked slightly better than Plow eight.five and then I tried to fine tune it even more.

I adjusted the tap position to seven.75, which, as you can await, had fifty-fifty more than unnoticeable difference. I wasn't sure whether Plow 7.75 was any better than Plough 8, but my Dad said it appears and so.

Then I stuck with Turn 7.75 and took a couple of photos from at that place. Video included!

This time, I measured the distance between the breakout bespeak and the target which the lightning arcs striking, and information technology turned out to exist around 40-50cm! That corresponds to about i,350,000V! Sweet!

This should end with my journeying with the Tesla Curlicue. It'southward been a actually long way since I started on the project on 28th of February 2007, till today. Over a twelvemonth and a half.

Functioning is smashing! Although I'm not too sure whether information technology'south around the maximum it tin output as I didn't tune the spark gap after it became loose over the months, I guess I should be pretty close.

I guess that concludes this amazing project, so bask the pictures!

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