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cpw1971
Mr

Registered: 10/07/06
Posts: 5,615
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Any Tesla COilers out there???
#8650138 - 07/18/08 08:20 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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Hey So I want to build a Tesla coil but I need a source for magnet wire for the secondary. I don't use paypal or ebay. I want to just pay with CC.
I am not sure if I want to build an old fashioned one or a modern SS one. anyone here that could help me out???
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 3 months, 8 days
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: cpw1971]
#8650308 - 07/18/08 09:32 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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cpw1971
Mr

Registered: 10/07/06
Posts: 5,615
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: Seuss]
#8650431 - 07/18/08 10:26 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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thanks for the links I actually just found Mouser yesterday. they have some high voltage caps and a Van De Graaf kit also. I wish I could find a bulk spool of magnet wire coupled with the right caps and transformer though. I used to have a spark tester from the auto parts store that would work as a spark gap with a small fan or something cooling it. I want to build a pretty big coil capable of 4 foot sparks if I could. and I want to do it for under $200. Sound feasible??
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 3 months, 8 days
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: cpw1971]
#8651824 - 07/18/08 04:10 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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If you are creative, you can make one for next to nothing. Get a used/discarded neon sign transformer for free from a sign shop.. they usually have piles of them rotting out back.. use a bolt, a few nuts, and some soft metal bent into a C to make your spark gap. Build your own capacitors out of window glass, wooden box, aluminum foil, and motor oil, etc. The wire will probably be your biggest expense.
Be careful. I built a 2-megavolt tesla coil in college in my dorm room. When we fired it up, the arcs went into the super structure of the building driving us from the room. We had to flip the circuit breaker to turn the thing off. A few days later the FCC showed up looking for the source of interference that took out air traffic communications near a major hub. Apparently, a ten story building makes a nice antenna for high frequency RF.
If you have access to a lathe, and a friend, it really helps when winding the coil.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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cpw1971
Mr

Registered: 10/07/06
Posts: 5,615
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: Seuss]
#8652832 - 07/18/08 08:50 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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I will make a coil winder. the part I dont understand is the tuning the caps, spark gap, connection to the primary coil and the frequency of the secondary. instead of using a NST I may go with a coil for a car or a flyback transformer.
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WWorker
...

Registered: 09/09/07
Posts: 395
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: Seuss]
#8653095 - 07/18/08 09:59 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Seuss said: If you are creative, you can make one for next to nothing. Get a used/discarded neon sign transformer for free from a sign shop.. they usually have piles of them rotting out back.. use a bolt, a few nuts, and some soft metal bent into a C to make your spark gap. Build your own capacitors out of window glass, wooden box, aluminum foil, and motor oil, etc. The wire will probably be your biggest expense.
Be careful. I built a 2-megavolt tesla coil in college in my dorm room. When we fired it up, the arcs went into the super structure of the building driving us from the room. We had to flip the circuit breaker to turn the thing off. A few days later the FCC showed up looking for the source of interference that took out air traffic communications near a major hub. Apparently, a ten story building makes a nice antenna for high frequency RF.
If you have access to a lathe, and a friend, it really helps when winding the coil.
lol....goddamn
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cpw1971
Mr

Registered: 10/07/06
Posts: 5,615
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: WWorker]
#8653180 - 07/18/08 10:22 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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yeah I would like some details on the coil. what gauge secondary wire?? secodary diameter? Caps? pole pig transformer???
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: cpw1971]
#8653247 - 07/18/08 10:41 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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I keep hearing these stories from Seuss' youth and never figure out how he didn't get labeled a national security threat.
I mean its all kid stuff, but I think in this day and age you'd find yourself on a watch list or in some other jail/beurocratic proceding.
So how far were you from the airport?
Did they find you or did you just shut up when they were asking people at the dorm?
Did they triangulate you or maybe just use two data points to find you? I can't imagine there are too many facilities that routinely capture enough information to find the source of stuff like that with any sort of percision, but maybe around an airport they have a couple antennas set up to locate interference of that nature so they can locate it. Did they just know it was from the building or did they have an idea of the room? I guess if the discharge ran up the building they coudln't find a flore specifically, even if they were that percise in their measurements anyways...
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 3 months, 8 days
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: johnm214]
#8654060 - 07/19/08 04:32 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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> figure out how he didn't get labeled a national security threat.
I don't know what I was labeled, but I had a really hard time getting though airport security until after 9/11.
> I mean its all kid stuff, but I think in this day and age
Yeah, I would have been in bad trouble today. I got into bad trouble at the time, but got lucky and had suspended sentences that expired and were expunged. Today, I would probably be sitting in Cuba (not literally, but...). The world has changed a lot since I was young and invulnerable.
> Did they triangulate you or maybe just use two data points to find you?
I never saw them, just heard about it on campus. They suspected that it was an experiment at the university and talked to several people, including my physics adviser (which is how I heard about it), trying to find the source of interference to ensure that it didn't happen again.
> So how far were you from the airport?
Around 120 miles. My understanding is that only the planes that were flying overhead were having problems with interference. However, because the airport was a major hub, and we happened to be under a flight path, it was a pretty big deal.
It also caused a stir with the local fire department because I set off every smoke detector in the building simultaneously; apparently a failure mode that simply cannot happen. After further experimentation, I found that the neon sign transformer arching to the metal door frame was enough to set off the building fire alarms (though I never heard if it hit all of the detectors at once; probably not).
> yeah I would like some details on the coil. secodary diameter?
Ugh, it has been a while. From what I remember...
The secondary coil was wrapped around PVC pipe, 3-inch diameter, I think. (If I am wrong, the diameter was smaller, not larger.) I used a hole saw to create wood plugs and glued them into the end of the pipe to mount it on a lathe. I got a friends help. One of us would spin the lathe by hand and the other would guide the wire. I also remember sealing the coil with something... probably varnish.
> what gauge secondary wire??
No idea. I found a large spool of surplus wire in the physics lab that I worked in and used it. It was thicker than I wanted, but free. Probably 22 awg from what I remember.
> Caps?
Started out with a home built capacitor using a wooden box, aluminum foil, and the stuff they make counter tops out of (formica?) as the dielectric. (I was intending to use window panes, but couldn't find any for free.) The entire thing was filled with oil The capacitor box was around 18"x24"x6" and probably had 20 to 30 layers of dielectric. I used contact cement to attach the foil to the counter top stuff and left a bit more than an inch around the edges free of foil. (My first attempt ended with arching across the edges of the layers. Don't extend the foil to the edges of the dielectric.)
I later upgraded to some sprauge caps that I picked up at surplus. They were about an inch in diameter, about a food long, and had a bolt coming out of each end for connection. I don't remember the specs, but probably in the 20,000 volt. I simply bolted them to a large copper bus bar on each end. About the same size as my previous capacitor box, but much lighter. I miss having access to government surplus... at time it was $1/lb regardless of what it was.
> pole pig transformer???
Nope, neon sign transformer. Weighed in around 30 lbs and could handle over 600 watts (12000V at 60ma). Be careful with these guys... I shocked myself, though stupidity playing with the thing, a handful of times and it HURTS (and can be lethal!). Put a stainless steel straight pin on one of the terminals and arc to it with HV wire from the other. The steel pin will get white hot and start to literally burn, even after you remove the HV wire/arc. You end up with a small ball of molten stainless.
Primary coil was mostly free standing, supported by wooden dowels with notches allowing the coil spacing to be altered (by re-wrapping the primary - a very easy task).
The spark gap was a piece of soft metal bent into a C with a hole drilled in the top. (Drill the hole before you bend the metal. I remember making that stupid mistake.) A bolt extended down the hole and was bolted into place with nuts above and below the bracket. By moving the bolt up or down I could adjust the gap length. I remember using a copper penny at the base of the gap, but I don't remember why. Probably just for show...
Top of the secondary was a metal doorknob bolted into the wooden plug inside the end of the PVC pipe.
The coil was tuned by moving a metal clip attached to the primary allowing the primary to be shortened or lengthened without having to re-wrap it. The entire coil assembly sat on top of the cap box. It stood just under four feet tall from the bottom of the cap box to the top of the doorknob. The primary coil was around 8" tall and the secondary coil was just under one meter long.
As far as I know, the secondary coil is still sitting the the physics building at my college. Everything else got taken apart and used for other projects.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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automan
blasted chipmunk


Registered: 09/18/03
Posts: 8,272
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: Seuss]
#8654224 - 07/19/08 07:06 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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-------------------- No, no, you're not thinking, you're just being logical. ~ Niels Bohr
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cpw1971
Mr

Registered: 10/07/06
Posts: 5,615
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: automan]
#8654387 - 07/19/08 09:10 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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thanks a lot for the info Suess. automan, yeah I wouldn't mind an audio modulated coil. a big and loud one. I have a melodic death metal band and to incorporate that into the act would be sweet 
I have a 2000v NST could I rewire the primary with less turns to achieve higher voltage?? would it affect the amperage??...



oh and I have 3" PVC for the Secondary. how may feet should I cut it??
Edited by cpw1971 (07/19/08 04:46 PM)
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Epigallo
Stranger
Registered: 09/17/06
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: cpw1971]
#8656657 - 07/19/08 08:52 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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how long does a power source last for a tesla coil (relatively)?
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cpw1971
Mr

Registered: 10/07/06
Posts: 5,615
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Re: Any Tesla COilers out there??? [Re: Epigallo]
#8657893 - 07/20/08 07:12 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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it should last a long time if hooked up properly. safety gap spark ring ect....
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