Hi Liviu,
Me and about 20 other coilers live here in Southern California where there
are stores that sell every piece of HV gear that one could wish to have -
the problem is that "real" HV gear is so expensive that only the
professional coilers (Hi Jeff & Bill) can afford to purchase it! All of my
Telsa Coiling buddies are experts at looking around at garage sales, salvage
yards, dumpsters, etc to find the materials that they need.
If you have the time to look around, you can find materials very cheaply.
The important thing to do is _understand_ what makes a coil work instead of
just trying to follow someone's blue print.
HV gear is all around you, it's just in disguise.
You could build at least 2 types of Tesla coil capacitors from materials in
ANY small grocery store (research salt water caps and rolled LDPE caps)
I know that they sell copper pipe in Romania :-) If not, just use 2 bolts or
something. Spark gaps aren't that critical for small coils.
I bet you can find a suitable form to wind the coil on. Plastics are best,
but a cardboard tube treated with varnish is acceptable. Telsa even used
wood! Find an old motor or something and get the magnet wire from it. Use
any heavy wire for the primary.
The transformer may be tricky part. Look for old broken neon signs and try
to get the transformers. Also keep an eye out for broken microwave ovens,
they have suitable transformers in them.
Variacs aren't a necessity! You can easily do this, just study a little and
keep your eyes open for materials. Let us know about your progress.
Making arcs in Huntington Beach, CA
Ross Overstreet
-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla List [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Monday, December 13, 1999 4:54 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Flat Secondary
Original Poster: Liviu Vasiliu <teslina-at-yahoo-dot-com>
Hi all,
I read a lot about standard TC on variated sites,
but I try to build a tesla coil with cheap pieces (
see you, an atomic bomb in the kitchen). In my country
(Romania) we have not special stores where can buy
electrical HV pieces ( pole pigs, HV caps, coper pipe,
etc ) and I try to build something easier to make (not
very high power, let's say 1000-2000 wats), but a
tesla coil.
I read somewhere that Tesla used a TC with flat
secondary ( like a pie). It can be build on a flat
surface, suspended on a wall, and I think that is
easier to vary the coupling (k=), with a mobile
primary, situated in the proximity. I am interesed to
know the formula for inductance (L=) for a flat coil.
Can someone give me informations about this type of
TC? Did you build such a device? Is it performant?
Greetings to all coilers
Liviu You can email me at teslina-at-yahoo-dot-com
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