What's Happening
Updated: July 8, 2007
I've decided to build a 12 inch coil. My original plan was to start construction
during the winter. But, since I now have everything I need, I've decided to start
now. The primary coil will consist of 200 feet of 3/8 inch copper tubing and the
secondary will be wound on a 5 foot section of 12 inch PVC with 18 gauge magnet
wire. I'm hoping to fire it up by the end of summer. I will start with the 5kVA
transformer, then move up to the newly acquired 10kVA transformer!
Updated: May 27, 2007
The second run of the 8 inch coil with the 5kVA pole transformer was much more
satisfactory. Dual static vacuum gaps were used and seems to have made a world
of difference. I was getting up to 10 foot arcs at the lowest power setting. Due to
a minor flaw in the chicken wire topload, I was getting more hits to the ground strike
rail than I'd like. For the next run, a small modification to the topload will be made and
I hope to start playing with those higher power levels. Pictures and video are available
in the 8 inch coil area.
Updated: May 13, 2007
I've run the 8 inch coil with the 5kVa pole transformer. I kind of expected more, but
overall, it wasn't bad for the first run. I'll be trying dual sucker gaps, different size tank
caps and all the other stuff one needs to experiment with. Pictures and video are available
under the 8 inch coil area.
Updated: March 25, 2007
I'm getting ready for my upcoming season. It'll certainly be interesting! I've purchased
a 5kVa pole transformer for use on the 8 inch coil. I'm waiting on delivery of an arc welder
for control and ballasting. I expect to be ready in 3-4 weeks.
Updated: October 2, 2006
I've run the 8 inch coil with a new, experimental toroid made from chicken wire to
cut down on the surface area of metal. It really makes an impressive difference.
The current "chicken wire" toroid is only 4 feet in diameter. I'll be building another
with a diameter of over 5 feet!
Updated: September 8, 2006
After unsuccessfully getting the 8 inch coil to run last year, I'm happy to announce,
after a few modifications it's beginning to look promising! It's not running as efficiently
as I'd like right now, but we'll get there. I need to experiment with different toploads
and I may play around with different tank cap sizes. A section for the 8 inch coil has
been started and posted. Hopefully, I'll be able to make considerable progress with
this monster before the weather gets too bad.
Updated: April 19, 2006
The mini 4 inch tesla coil now puts out 2 1/2 foot arcs!!!!
Updated: April 13, 2006
OK...so there hasn't been any updates in awhile. My 2005 TC season ended with
nothing worth reporting. But, I've started my 2006 season with yet another coil.
The original table top coil performed unreliably and I wasn't very happy with the
end result. It went through a "facelift" two more times. The first change was to
get rid of the small secondary I was using and replace it with a 4 inch coil wound
on thin wall PVC. I thought I try a helical primary with this new design. It worked,
but there was tons of arcing occurring on the secondary. I actually thought I may
have damaged the windings. I ended up rebuilding it again using a flat spiral primary.
As it turns out, it appears the secondary coil survived!
Although I don't have the new table top design working to the point I expect, I've
added a section for it. First light was satisfactory, so there is video and a couple of
pictures.
The 8 inch coil is not behaving well at all. I'll try again this year.
That's all for now!