Snock's Tesla Coil Page

Welcome to my Tesla coil page. I just thought I would get another Geocities space so I am able to add some more pictures. This page will document my Tesla coil activities and have some good construction tips for those of you who think you would like to build one for yourself. My email address is msnock@theonramp.net.

When viewing the pictures on this page it is best if you right click on the image and select "view image" (Netscape). They may look a little better. A real picture viewer such as Paint Shop Pro will make a big difference.

There are three common types of Tesla coils; the monopolar 1/4 wave, the bipolar 1/2 wave, and the Tesla magnifier. I have built the bipolar type and am currently working on a 4"x20" monopolar.

Here are some pictures and construction information on this bipolar Tesla coil:

This is the basic setup of my small bipolar coil. At the top the two spheres were constructed from two softballs covered in aluminum foil. Below the output terminals is the secondary and primary. The secondary is wound with about 1100 turns of 27 guage magnet wire on a 1 1/2" piece of PVC pipe. The winding length is 18 1/2" long. The primary is about 7" in diameter and is wound with 6 gauge solid ground wire. It has a total of 14 turns spaced 3/8" apart. The primary coil is held in place with six plywood spacers with notches for the heavy wire cut in them. The spacers are made from 1/2" thick plywood which is cut 8" long by 2 1/2" wide. The stand for this coil is very simple. It has a plywood base and the coil is supported by some PVC "tee" connectors. Below the primary on the left is two neon sign transformers. These transformers are rated 5kV at 60mA each. They are connected in series for 10kV at 60mA. To the right of the transformers is a "Richard Quick cylinder spark gap" which consists of 7 3/4" hard copper water pipes mounted .03" from away eachother. This forms 6 series gaps. To the right of the spark gap is 6 beer bottle capacitors which have a capacitance of about 800pF per bottle. The are connected in parallel for about .0048uF. There is no transformer protection circuits on this coil, but they are planned to be added.

This is an arc about 12" long. Arcs like this are loud and can even drown out the sound of the spark gap.

Here is a closeup of an arc. It is just a little longer than 12". The day this picture was taken it was very humid outside so I suspect longer arcs on dry days. Maybe arcs as long as 14".

Here are some pictures of my monopolar coil which is under construction:

These two pictures show the base of the Tesla coil and some of the components.
This is the coil's capacitor. It is in 4" PVC and has teflon standoffs on the side.
These two pictures are of the primary coil.  It is wound with 50' of 1/4" soft copper tubing. 13 turns are made with a 6 1/2" inner diameter with a turn to turn spacing of 1/2".  Shown also is the secondary which is a 4" diameter form wound with 22 guage magnet wire to a length of 20".
These two pictures show pretty much what the completed coil will look like.  The toroid in this picture is unfinished, and was replace with an aluminum dryer duct type.