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ALL MEMBERS: Please take a moment to read this as it may help you even
if you don't realize it yet.
Howdy all,
Just wanted to share some information with you and get a little
feedback. I wanted to pose a question to everyone out on the list that
may end up helping a lot of you in the near future. The more people I
can get to respond, the more helpful it will be. First though, lets get
a little background information...
Many many years ago when I first got into coiling, I was VERY young and
lacking a lot of skills required to really push forward into the modern
world of coiling. As a result, today I feel I can really relate to some
of you newer guys trying to get into the hobby, but not really knowing
where to start, who to call, where to buy materials, etc. There are a
lot of ways to do things in the conventional tesla realm (as well as the
solid state arena). Some have slowly become the "tesla industry
standard" way of doing things, others are considered learning steps for
newcomers. Unfortunately, some of these learning steps can be deadly. I
think a great example (one of many) is using Arcylic as a rotary gap
material. Don't lie, you know some of you out there have done it. Some
probably never ran into problems. Others may have experienced rather
exciting yet terrifying failures. Hopefully none were hurt. This is just
one of the many examples of the learning steps involved in build coils.
One thing that I feel is really key to this hobby is growth. Sure there
are some of you out there who build one coil and then move onto
something else and that's fine, however, if I had to guess, several of
you if not most of you out there are hooked into coiling and will most
likely progress through several coils, revisions, etc. That part is key!
Most of us on here are here to stay and don't want to be spoon fed. We
want to let the true engineer inside shine through. Come up with our own
concepts and turn them into practical creations. The problem here, is
sometimes without the experience or knowledge, this can be difficult at
first. I've been trying to think of a way I can help bridge this gap. A
way I can help and give back to the community, but in a way that is not
spoon feeding the newcomer. So what is my original question to all of you?
*Let me make it clear first that I am not gaining anything from this*
If I was to offer any tesla coil part you could possibly imagine,
precision machined out of almost any material, what would you want to be?
In other words, what as a newcomer do you find to be the most difficult
mechanical obstacle to overcome when building your coil? Garolite rotary
gap discs? Custom tungsten electrodes? How about standoff insulators, or
primary coil supports? You name it. I'd like to get this feedback from
everyone as I am considering offering these parts and services to you
all at a fraction of the normal cost. This was always the biggest
challenge for me when I first started. I knew what I needed. I could get
all the information I wanted from this wonderful list, but I never knew
how, or could afford to have various parts professionally machined, let
alone multiple revisions.
Sure this sounds like a sell, but don't think of it like that. This is
simply my way of giving back to the community and again, ***I will not
be getting anything out of this* other than the satisfaction that I get
from returning the favor that others did for me when I was first
starting. Any cost to you is simply to cover the CNC machine shop that I
work for that will be doing the manufacturing. So how is this not spoon
feeding? The idea here is to help encourage growth using safe processes
and materials and provide the necessary equipment that would be
otherwise out of reach. Now once I get some feedback from everyone we
can determine what if anything you would like to see. We will probably
take everyone's suggestions and create a variety of parts of different
sizes. These parts will then be available to you to purchase directly
from the machine shop or through me if you prefer. This will allow you
guys to for the first time be able to pickup individual pieces to build
out what ever coil you have pictured. I like to think of us as the Home
Depot of Tesla coil parts. Getting back to one of my original points
though, we're very hesitant to sell entire kits. You can buy Tesla kits
on eBay. That's boring... Be creative! That's what this hobby is all
about! Continue to do what we all do best. Come up with new and
incredible coil designs, but in a pinch, let us help you fill in some of
the gaps.
Send me parts you would like to see. We are also considering allowing
you guys to submit custom parts for fabrication. Hopefully we will start
offering some basic parts such as rotary gap parts here in the next few
weeks. Some examples, submit suggestions, get more information, etc here:
Thanks guys for your time and thanks to the list mods for all you do!
Cheers,
Andrew
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