How to build a Tesla Coil

This Instructable will walk you through building a medium sized Tesla coil.

Step 1 DANGER

Unlike some other high voltage experiments, a Tesla coil's streamers can be very harmful. If you are shocked by the streamers, you will not feel pain, but your circulatory and nervous system can sustain severe damage. DO NOT TOUCH IT WHILE ON UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

Also, I don't take any responsibility for you hurting yourself.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't get into high voltage though, its just that if you are planning for this to be your first HV project, its a little to involved. Instead, try out a nice microwave oven transformer, and be safe!

Comments

[Higgs Boson]

so I have a 75 kv .4 mA flyback, and was wondering if I could use it to power this tesla. It is a lot bigger than the 9kv that was said to use in the instructable, and smaller than the current, but would it still work?

[red_green]

if i eliminated the ground on the secondary, would it create a better display?
i ask this as i don't want to have to ground it directly into the ground.
also, i wonder why you couldn't connect the three grounds together to eliminate any more grounds to condense it into one outlet.

[red_green]

i have been thinking, and i think that the electricity would take the path of least resistance (down into the ground), or are all you talking about it like high pressure water in a pipe with holes in it???

[geofisiks]

How do you test a salt water capacitor? I have a multimeter but it doesn't read any capacitance when i connect the two leads. This MM has micro and nano capacitance readings.

Thanks.

[Bumba Lodh]

Hi,I built a TESLA COIL with 5kv 30ma nst.Primary coil made with 4mm
copper tube with 10 turns secondary made with 2inch PVC pipe.Winding
height 10.2inch(0.315mm enameled copper wire used) also made Capacitor
bank with 2kv 0.15uF polyester film capacitor.But the problem is my
Capacitor burnt several times but the coil works with LEYDEN JAR
capacitor.Why the capacitor burning??????


Please Help Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tophernator309]

How do you make the top part. Can you plz comment to this one. I need it before March.

[Tophernator309]

Wow, someone should really help him.

[fminning]

i'm friends with a glass blower and i was wondering if i could replace some of the parts so it would be safer????
or would i be better off leaving it as instructed??

[wzheng1]

I have experimented with wine and beer bottles. but when I hook them up with my 4kv NST, the electricity leaks between the bottle and the alumnium foil outside. any body knows why?

[makincoolstuff]

you tube geek group bucket capacitor. these work fantastically.

[genious123]

u didn't tell about the top load, making it or connecting it?? why's that?? and how to connect the capacitors, primary coils and spark gaps to the secondary coil on the PVC tube? Please elaborate these steps, some people might have a few problems understanding them.

P.S.: please provide us with a detailed schematic in which ALL the connections are shown and are PROPERLY labelled. PLEASE.... we need it..

[makincoolstuff]

the spark gap goes parallel with your power supply. The capacitors are in series with the power supply. The primary (copper tube) is in parallel with the power supply. the bottom of the secondary (the wire on pvc tube) is connected to ground and the top of the wire is connected to the topload. the top load just has to be something conductive with a smooth surface, no sharp edges (a large sphere or toroid is a common design). The secondary has no electrical connection with the primary. it is a resonance transformer.

wikipedia tesla coil

[wzheng1]

wikipedia has the circuit diagram of how to connect a tesla coil

[ktora]

Does the Wire wrapped around the secondary coil have to be continuous? Or can you simply solder the wires togethor, or connect them in any other way?

[jtinio]

why do you used the liquid? like what effect does the fact that you used the liquids you did have on the overall effect of the telsa coil??

[R.A.T.M]

so i have a little 3k genarater could i use that and do i need the lyden jars

[vernors]

so i used bottels from turkey hill (they;re made from HDPE plastice) but they keep getting holes in them. How can i fix this? or should i just use snapple bottles?

[DevCoder]

Well, any glass bottle would work really. The plastic has too low of a dielectric constant to stop an arc from jumping through the bottle. This does happen to the glass, but it doesn't melt as easily.

[The designer]

This has a lack of wireing procedures infact no procedure at all is there a reason for this??

[vernors]

Are the capacitors hooked up in series, or parallel?

[camokid96]

is the threading on the adapter on the ouside or the inside?

[KrisJosh]

ummm, so after you attached the metal flange to the wood, did you cut a hole in the middle of the wood in order to insert the UV-M adapter a.k.a PVC screwy thingy?

[KrisJosh]

ummm, so after you attached the metal flange to the wood, did you cut a hole in the middle of the wood in order to insert the UV-M adapter a.k.a PVC screwy thingy?

[KrisJosh]

ummm, so after you attached the metal flange to the wood, did you cut a hole in the middle of the wood in order to insert the UV-M adapter a.k.a PVC screwy thingy?

[ElectricBatFrog]

Devin,
How would the top be constructed? Also, how would the wiring go? I realize that it's on Wikipedia but I would like a quick little overview of how to do it to make sure that I'm not messing up!

Thanks!

[johndoe2569]

your alumnium foil is makeing a small gap somewhere and should be haveing no wrinkels so it,s touching everywhere

[johndoe2569]

the tesla coil with the ground made to vibrate at the earts frequency would light your vacuum tubes as far as tesla made them lightup "miles away".

[johndoe2569]

Tesla's design for his advanced magnifying transmitter used a top terminal consisting of a metal frame in the shape of a toroid, covered with hemispherical plates (constituting a very large conducting surface). The top terminal has relatively small capacitance, charged to as high a voltage as practicable. The outer surface of the elevated conductor is where the electrical charge chiefly accumulates. It has a large radius of curvature, or is composed of separate elements which, irrespective of their own radii of curvature, are arranged close to each other so that the outside ideal surface enveloping them has a large radius. This design allowes the terminal to support very high voltages without generating corona or sparks.
the coil with the earth ground "secondary" should resonate at the same frequency as the earth it self, a copper pipe atlease 6 ft in the ground with a motor attached to it to make it vibrate at the rfequency of the earth and thats how it produces free energy, and the toroid collects radiant energy witch is burnt off as the sparks people see.
so if the primary becomes the secondary, and the secondary becomes the primary it,s a form or a radiant energy collector.
step up the electric collected from radiant energy and it would produce free energy.
if you made the coil produce spark,s that where the same frequency as "the human body" produces then it would be like takeing a 5hour energy drink but with much more energy for the human body.

[genious123]

What should be the distance between each winding on the primary coils????

[smacdonald5]

I was wondering where you bought the wire from????

[kkatooru]

vryy useful dude... :) thnkz a ton

[Analogue-Chick]

I am planning to create my own mini Tesla Coil but somebody is anxious that I might kill myself in the process. Anyway, great job!

[adamnsmith]

in fact it doesn't say anything about how to wire anything up

[genious123]

I agree with you....

[genious123]

Hey, seriously, this diagram shows nothing....... I need a well labelled diagram of the connections to be made. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY NEED IT!!!!!!!! I would be gratefull if only u could mail the steps to me(please write the steps in detail and send properly labelled diagrams if possible).
mail ID: [e-mail].
hope to recieve your mail.....very soon...
i hav to build it before 27th august(It's the day i have to submit it.....)
So please help me make it!!! PLEASE.!!!!

[genious123]

Hey, seriously, this diagram shows nothing....... I need a well labelled diagram of the connections to be made. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY NEED IT!!!!!!!! I would be gratefull if only u could mail the steps to me(please write the steps in detail and send properly labelled diagrams if possible).
mail ID: [e-mail].
hope to recieve your mail.....very soon...
i hav to build it before 27th august(It's the day i have to submit it.....)
So please help me make it!!! PLEASE.!!!!

[phooper1]

Not true, you just need to some electronics to do this, If you dont know, do not attempt to make this device. This device can and will kill you, if built large enough, and if you do not know what you are doing, so builders be weary. Large capacitors can hold charges for days. Then come hop along casadey and whack. Large currents and voltages can be generated, thats is it whole purpose. Do some research on Inductors, capacitor, the math that goes along, yes you need math to build these, cause most of all the parts you will be making are hand made unless you buy a complete kit. I have been working in the electronics field for years, and I'm leery of building one in my own home, you should be too

[adamnsmith]

well no duh it will kill me i know all about this stuff and i just found out how it really works but my transformer is broken and i need a new one where can i get one?

[kve23]

ebay

[adamnsmith]

never mind i just got one at a sign shop and i dont really trust online shopping cuz i wont know if it will really do what i want it to do