First Sparks	This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. If you were looking for fourtyninecent music web page, click link here :   http://www.fourtyninecent.com     No, it didn't cost fortynine cents, that's just my nick name, it cost about $200.       The tesla coil is a type of voltage amplifier capable of extremely high voltages. My goal here is to simplify, while keeping it safe and reliable..To the left is the complete assembly.  The top left photo shows corona and a 27" spark to grounded rod (no breakout point). The bright light at the bottom is the spark gap firing. Man, that thing is loud! Note there is an extra segment to raise the torroid not seen in the next  shot,  this was needed to eliminate racing sparks down the primary.   This photo shows the very first 7" sparks - before fine tuning !!! Note that the secondary coil form goes to the bottom of the unit for extra stability and support, the top is very stable this way.On the bottom shelf is the Allanson 15,000 volt, 60 ma neon transformer, the seven segment spark gap, the notebook capacitor, and the safety gap, all in one unit. 300 Baker Avenue Concord, MA 01742 Please note, this voltage is very dangerous, It could kill you! Be careful ! Please read this safety info before proceeding. http://www.pupman.com/safety.htm
Design programs to help plan a coil	Music about tesla coil Fourtyninecent.com
support parts Add your content here	The super easy 29 cent primary coil support -  There are four of these holding up the primary coil. (Three would do fine).They are super glued togeter. The super glue melts and welds the plastic with great strength. An extra cross-member was added near the bottom to increase stability. A single bolt holding the top section to the base allows for some flexability, allowing adjustment of the angle Add your content here
Add your content here	Parts ready to be assembled. The rulers were cut with a heated spatula, I heated the spatula using a propane torch, or you could heat it over a gas stove flame. The plastic rulers melt easily, cuts  like a hot knife through butter. The holes were made with a heated section of the copper pipe. Easy as pie. The rulers already have markings, making the spacing extra easy!! The pipe is .25 inches, the spacing is .25 inches. The holes are half a pipe width deep more or less. I used hard plastic, transparent rulers, these work best with super glue. A paper protractor was used for angle measurement - 30 degrees inverted cone primary geometry.(download protractor from math.com). Add your content here
Add your content here	Working slowly, and pre-forming the pipe to the desired shape, it almost lays in place by itself a little extra time and care in forming the spiral really pays off. I used 4 supports, but I could get away with only three. I suspended the coil of pipe as it came in the package above the forms.   The support base was a section of plastic shelving unit from Walmart, cost $8.00, the hole for the secondary was made again with a heated spatula.The plastic rulers are great insulators, easy to cut and work with, as it the plastic base.The whole primary assembly is just taped to the table top, it ain't going nowhere. Larger soft copper pipe was added as a grounded strike rail - can be seen in the completed coil photo at the top. Add your content here
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	The new design uses extra heavy duty plastic notebook page protectors, these are 5.0 mils thick, And are very high quality, none of the defects so common in zip lock bags or plastic sheeting from the hardware store.  I added 2 extra pages between cells for extra insulation making 6 layers, 30 mills total.(Please note - most experts reccomend at least 90 mils at this voltage,) The pages have 3 holes on the side for easy alignment. Heavy duty aluminum foil was cut to size leaving 0.5 inch space around the sides, corners were rounded to reduce corona. Each plate has 7.5" x 9" (67.5 sq.inch) active area plus a tab on top for connections. there are 20 plates. I used nylon bolts to join the pages together.Get a roll of extra wide foil, and avoid any creases or folds in the foil, these create hot spots.
	The case for the capacitor plates is a simple wooden box measuring 13" x 11.5". The sides are 1"x2"s.. There are 20 plates.Stainless steel surgical clamps connect the plates together..Each cell was filled with mineral oil (availabe at the drug store). About one gallon total. Dont use vegetable oil - It gets rancid.This case can be easily disasembled...I had to do this when it failed, pages can be added,or removed to adjust capacitance.Additional oil was added to keep the level above the top of the aluminum foil to reduce corona edge effects.The filled unit was allowed to sit for 2 days to remove bubbles, then several low power runs were done to further compress the stack and expell air, the plates will press against each other when powered up (electrostatic attraction), squeezing out air and oil from between the sheets. More oil was then added as the level dropped due to displaced air - Warning, check oil level before each run make sure the oil covers the top of the pages.
Add your content here	Each notebook page was filled individually with mineral oil..about 60cc (2 oz) per page. The complete stack of pages was placed in a two gallon zip lock bag to keep the oil from leaking, that way the case need not be waterproof sealed... I just slapped togeter some wood with nails to keep the stack compressed..WOW ..EASY ! It is important to keep all pages completely covered with oil. My pages migrated up above the oil level, and some (3) pages arced across the top, these pages and the insulating pages had to be replaced.
	Completed stack inside the zip lock bag, front of box not yet put on. I left the top open to allow for connections and venting, or adding more oil.  Flat plate Capacitor formulas 1) Basic formula : C=eA/d where C = capacitance in Farads, e = dielectric constant*, A = area of plate in sq. meters, d = distance between plates. 2) Conversion to inches formula: C (picofarads)= .224 eA/d  C(microfarads)=.224eA/1,000,000d 3) A plate in the middle of the stack (both sides are active) will have the capacitance doubled) *e (dielectric constant for polyethelyne sheet = 2.2

	Winding the primary, I used an old sewing machine, which has a foot pedal speed control. The tube fit over the back part of the machine. I used 4" PVC pipe (5" is reccomended..but I couldn't find it), I dried it by covering in plastic garbage bags and running a hair dryer over it for about 4 hours, then varnished it before applying the wire. 1.32 pounds (1080 feet) of 24 ga. enamled wire was used. 10 coats of varnish cover the complete coil. I left an extra two feet of pipe on one end, so the pipe goes all the way to the floor (bottom of support table) for extra stability and support. Simplified Spark gap Consisting of 7 segments of copper pipe each one millimeter apart. I used pennies to space the pipe (pennies are one millimeter thick). No drilling or bolts were used, just some two part epoxy glue to hold the pipes in place. The original Richard Quick design has holes drilled through the pipes, with bolts to hold them in place, I omitted that part, seems to work fine with just the epoxy, and a LOT easier to assemble. Man am I lazy! . The spark gap is quenched by an old hair dryer, an excellent hi velocity air stream , My wife is really gonna kill me now !-  The top torroid was supported by and old tupperware cake container bottom (My wife's gonna kill me again), it has extensions to support the torroid (handles) and again was easily cut with a heated spatula. The unit is just pressed into place on top of the secondary, friction alone holds it in place so it can be easily adjusted or removed. I also bought a larger plastic plate made for potted plants to catch the dripping water, but have not used it yet.

	Address Top of torroid, showing aluminum foil connection. Black electrical tape connects the final strand from the secondary to the toroid. 300 Baker Avenue Concord, MA 01742
	The $ 6.98 power control I've seen some pretty fancy looking power control panels. Mine works fine, it controls the power going into the  transformer from 0% up to 100% full power, it even comes with an RF filter...It's a simple plug in lamp dimmer, it works fine, and has a 10' cord so I can stand way back when powering up.Some people claim these don't work and you must use an expensive variac, mine has worked fine so far. FAILURE - March 6 2004 - dimmer does not dim- just on-off, need new dimmer, will go for higher wattage model. "Experts" reccomend a variac. Not ready to go that route yet!!!
	Product Info Close up of safety gap...pretty simple set of  "L" brackets with nuts and bolts. I like to see it fire occasionally, that is how I adjusted it... just so it fires once in a while. You can see some extra wire looping around, I eliminated all slack and extra wire later on to improve performance...less is better.The RF ground is a ten foot section of copper water pipe I pounded into the ground just for this application...luckily the ground is pure sand here!