first time builder questions, help please

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Michael Ong" <omenowner725@xxxxxxxxxxx>

hello, my name is Michael and I'm starting to build a tesla coil for 
my senior high school project. I wanted to model my tesla coil after 
the one shown here http://www.tb3.com/tesla/smallcoil/smallcoil.html
however I had a few questions i was hopping you guys could answer first.
1: the toroid shown is a spun al 3.2" x 1.1" with a needle point. I 
want to be able to put the spinning toy on top and have it spin like 
shown on terry's site because I think it will impress the panel and 
looked pretty cool. the question is does anyone know where to get 
one. I found a spun copper 3.2" x 1.1" without a needle point for 
sale. could i make my own needle point with a boil or nail? any help 
on this toroid issue would be greatly appreciated

the next question I had was why is a copper tube static spark gap 
used instead of a rotary gap, I'm still a little confused on when to 
use which. also, anyone know a web site with instructions to make a 
copper tube static gap if they are better than rotary or other static 
gaps for this coil.

thanks a million guys all the help is much appreciated.

__