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Tesla coiling; People ask me what a tesla coil is, my universal answer is : "An air core resonant transformer excited by an alternating current high voltage source feeding a resonant tank circuit that produces really big sparks" and people usually ask me "why would you want to make one of those?" This is where the conflict comes in, I don't know why! I just do it and have been since grade school. It is an addiction, it is a hobby, it is a lifestyle and it is a money pit. I like to create big, dangerous electrical discharges. I am familiar with high voltage and know how not to die, I fear my creations, others fear my creations. It isn't about fear though, electricity is beautiful, strange and untamed.

Setups past and present: I currently am working on a coil with a 7" diameter secondary, a flat spiral primary of 3/8" Cu. reefer tube, Big plate glass capacitor with Al. flashing, fed by a few 15Kv/ 30ma. neon sign transformers. In the past I have used a 12" dia. secondary with good results. I believe that my first coil was powered by a 10Kv. 23ma. oil ignition transformer, and had a few hundred turns of secondary on a 2" form. A plate glass and foil capacitor was used and I got about 6"-8" sparks using #12 house wire as a primary. I am working on using microwave oven transformers for a power supply in the future.

Currently I achieve about 26" discharges with the 12" dia. secondary, that is why I am going to the 7" instead, I don't have enough drive to run the 12" to any real potential. I will post pics when the new coil is up and running. I really need to ditch my plate glass capacitors and redo my saltwater cap, or move on to an MMC configuration.

Others: I am always looking for a good high voltage project and want to get into pulse discharge and capacitor arrays. I plan on working on other things as the ideas come to me or I read about someone on the net doing really bizarre stuff.