Mini Spark Gap Tesla Coil

Step 5 Secondary coil

The secondary coil is the long vertical coil rising from the primary coil. This is where you spend a good chunk of time winding the coil. The secondary coil should be 5 times bigger than the diameter pipe you are using so I am using 1.5 in diameter then the length of the coil should be 7.5 in. I got my magnetic wire from radio shack remember it comes with 22, 27, and 30 gage wire. You are only going to use the 27 awg wire, it should be green. You are going to use all three of the rolls of wire! This will make the coil to turn out at 8 in which will be fine! I drilled 4 small holes at the bottom of the pvc pipe. Run the wire in then out, in the out and back in. There should be a little bit of wire sticking out the bottom of the pvc pipe. This will be connected to earth ground! After you have done that then start to roll! When your rolling the coil and run out of the first roll, put a piece of tape holding the wire to the pvc pipe, get the second roll that you have and solder the two leads together (make sure you scrape off some of the enamel). Get as little solder on them as possible, and just keep on rolling! You can check and see if you have a connection with a meter. If you find wire somewhere else and have enough then you can just skip this. After you are done rolling I drilled three holes where the coil ends and ran the wire in then out and back in and up the tube. This will hold the wire so it dont come unwound! Cut off the remaining pvc pipe but leave about 1 to 2 inches above the coil!

I made another coil out of the 30 awg wire. You will have to add more turns on the primary