Specifications for Tesla Coil #001:

This will be my first ever Tesla coil and as such it may very well end up with wildly different specs to the ones shown below. I've been using a really useful program, written by Mark S Graalman, called 'Teslac' to work out a lot of the design specifications. It is a most excellent tool!

Power Supply:

240VAC (50Hz) NST (neon sign transformer). Output - 10kV 100mA

Primary Coil:

15 turns of 8mm(5/16") copper tubing.

Tank Capacitor:

A homemade stacked plate capacitor of 0.03uF, with a rating of 25kV.

Secondary Coil:

6" x 24" of 22 AWG(0.644mm) enameled copper wire wound on a 3 foot piece of PVC tubing.

Spark Gap:

6 series gaps (made of copper pipe) each 10 to 20 thou (mil).

Discharge Terminal:

Toroid made from 7" pie dishes and 4" diameter aluminium ducting.

Protection Circuitry:

Chokes - homemade, wound on 2 1/4" OD ferrite cores for approx 5mH. Bypass capacitors - approx 250pF@40kVDC (each wired from HV tap to earth tap). Safety gaps - three contact gap on output of NST and possibly another on its input (belt & braces!).

Power Controller:

Mains filter, variac, key interlock, emergency power-off button, voltage and current meters, power ON lights.