Beginer building a small sstc.

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Original poster: "Nick D." <ngdbud@xxxxxxxxx>

I am 14 and have a few questions about a small Tesla coil I'm trying 
to build. First of all, the dimensions for the secondary coil will be 
2.5 inches in diameter and 10 inches tall. I have a homemade plate 
stack capacitor that can handle 10 kv playing on the safe side. I 
measured it to have a capacity of 26 nf ut under my body weight I can 
get  it up to 40 nf. For a coil this small I'll probably leave it 
uncompressed. As for the power supply, I would like to stay away from 
wall sockets and work off battery power. I'm thinking of using a 
squre wave generator sending out pulses at 1-100 khz at 10-15 volts 
and running it backwards through a 3 volt transformer, this should 
get me between 4 and 6 kv. My second best choice for power supply 
would be a flyback transformer, but I only have the newer types, 
encased with plastic and having cylindrical secondar coils. I made a 
torid for the coil out of three feet of dryer hose. it has a 9 inch 
diam eter and is 4.5 inches tall. Is this too big for my coil? Since 
I'm working at this low a power level, I plan on using 18 awg speaker 
wire for a primary coil and 28 awg for the secandary. Is 18 awg too 
thin? For the primary how many coils should I use and how far apart 
should I space them? If you have any comments or answers to even just 
one question, I would love to hear them.