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RE: [TCML] Building my first tesla coil



Hi Jeremy,

Judging by your collection of goodies, you seem to be very motivated and enthusiastic!  I recall my early coiling days - nothing remotely connected with electricity was safe from my gaze.  But the unfortunate truth is that most of what we gaze upon has little relevance as far as ever being incorporated into a working coil.

I think the 9/30 NST is the most useful thing in your collection.  The MOT's could be used, but really need to be used with a rotary spark gap - not what you want to start with.  And as you noted, all of the caps you have, being electrolytic and not useful in spark gap coils.  That's quite the stash of wire you have!  I think about #24 AWG?  For a 9/30 NST I would have gone with something somewhat thinner for winding a secondary, but that will surely work.

Finding suitable caps is probably going to be the biggest challenge.  I don't think that the power grid caps you mentioned are suitable, despite having that cool HV look about them.  They're just not designed for high current pulse discharges or figh frequencies.  Very few caps are suitable, even though they might have a high voltage rating.  Much has been written on this forum about the types that are suitable.  You can (and should) spend several days (months?) reading about it, or I can cut to the chase and just say to buy a suitable number of Cornell Dubilier 942C20P15K-F 0.15uF/2000V caps to build an MMC array.  

It's important to plan your coil before buying stuff, and use a simulation program (WinTesla or JavaTC) to plan the various components.  The planning begins with identifying the power supply/transformer, so you have a good start there.  I attempted to outline the steps on my web site http://www.laushaus.com/tesla/howtodesign.htm  Much additional good reading elsewhere on my site as well, describing the coils I have built.

Good luck and have fun!

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA



> -----Original Message-----
> From: tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
> Behalf Of Jeremy
> Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 11:56 AM
> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [TCML] Building my first tesla coil
> 
> 
> Greetings to all,
> 
> I have just started on tesla coil building, and as such am quite a dunce in most
> aspects. So far i have managed to get 7 MOTs, 1 MOT cap, 1 NST rated 9 kV 30
> mA, 1 large unrated NST, 26137 micro F worth of 400VDC caps, 216000 micro F
> worth of 350VDC caps (36x 350VDC 6000 micro F caps), 20350 micro F worth of
> 200VDC caps, 18900 micro F worth of 150 VDC caps, 20600 micro F worth of
> 100VDC caps as well as about 10 kg of 0.5mm magnet wire, all from junk shops.
> One thing to note is that all those caps are polar aluminium electrolytic types, so i
> don't know if they can be used in a tesla coil at all. I also managed to pick up a
> power supply unit for a smashed He/Ne laser, but doubt that will be of much good
> here.
> 
> I had half the mind to build a 15.4 kJ cap bank for EM propulsion, but decided that I
> am untimately still more interested in building a tesla coil. This is the first time I am
> meddling with HV stuff on this scale, and as such i think i really need lots of good
> advice from experienced builders.
> 
> I am based in Singapore, and the local power supply is at 240V 50 Hz. I am also
> trying to acquire a pole pig or 2, though those would have to be imported as there
> are no overhead power lines here, as well as those big ceramic power grid caps
> which would serve well in a big tesla coil.
> 
> Any design advice would be much appreciated.
> 
> thanks and regards,
> jeremy

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