RE: intro

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "keith" <keith.cc@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Justin,
I just built my first coil a month ago, and am only just really getting
into high voltage. Here are some of the sites I found very helpful as a
beginner:

http://www.richieburnett.co.uk/tesla.shtml - this is probably the
best/most comprehensive tesla coil theory site in existence - try to
read all of it, especially the components, operation, and
quenching/coupling pages. It made everything much clearer for me.

http://hot-streamer.com/ - hosts a large number of very helpful coiling
sites, and run by the moderator of this mailing list.

http://www.classictesla.com/java/javatc.html - an excellent and very
thorough java based program for designing spark gap tesla coils - it's
what I used to design my coil.

www.allthingstesla.com and www.forum.4hv.org - both excellent forums on
tesla coiling/high voltage, with lots of very helpful people. 4hv.org is
much larger, but allthingstesla.com was less intimidating, at least to
me, when I was just getting into hv. Searching the archives on either
site is an excellent way to find answers to common questions.

http://hot-streamer.com/TeslaCoils/Misc/NSTFilt.jpg - when you get to
actually building your coil, and are worried about burning your house
down with it, as most beginners tend to be, this is the low-pass filter
you should use to prevent that from happening. (I got pretty confused
about how to construct a filter, until I found that schematic and read
about it).

You definitely have the right idea with wanting to read/learn as much as
possible before starting to build - it will save you lots of time,
money, and make things much safer (at least it did for me). I'd also
suggest using javatc (link above) to design your coil - it can save a
lot of frustration, and is much easier than trying to work everything
out by hand. I used it and got 14 inch streamers from my first coil the
first time I turned it on, without any adjustment at all.

If you ever have any questions/things you aren't sure about and can't
find the answer online, and if you don't want to start a whole new
thread on the mailing list, feel free to email me directly at
keith.cc@xxxxxxxxxxx - I'm still really a beginner myself, and can
probably answer beginner questions as clearly as anyone. I know how
frustrating it can be when you don't understand something and can't seem
to find the answer anywhere.

Keith C


-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 5:43 PM
To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: intro

Original poster: Just Justin <rocketfuel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Greetings!

My name is Justin and I've got the bug to make a tesla coil. (Hi
Justin...)


Here in Texas we have a little festival called Burning Flipside, which
is
related to Burning Man, which is the only place I've ever seen tesla
coils
fire.

Do any of you know of Dr. Megavolt?  Maybe he's on this list? :)

Anyway, I'm in the early phase where my plan is to just absorb as much
information as possible on the topic and any actual building is probably
at least 6 months away.  There seems to be a lot of great info on the
net,
but if any of you have any links or books you think would be
particularly
helpful I'm all ears.


Also if you have any advice for a first timer I'd love to hear it as
well.
There seem to be quite a few ways to skin this cat.


Regards,
  Justin Cooper