Tesla Coil: Secondary Coil

How to get a nice/free winding station set up for a medium to large sized secondary coil.

Step 1: Supplies for a secondary

To build the secondary coil, you will need magnet wire, a form to wind the wire around. The form can be cardboard, PVC, or other non conductive material tube.

Comments

[disappearingshadow]

if i used 22 guage wire instead of the 24 magnetic wire do i have to redo it?

[nak]

No, you just have to make sure your coil tunes

Good luck, and do some more reading!

[cartilige]

I wish somebody would make an easy to understand, small, and as un-complicated as possible tesla coil. I'm a long exposure photographer and just want BIG sparks. I'm not AMAZING at electronics but i do have alot of know-how, but all the instructions available make no sense. Will somebody just make it simpler.

[knoxarama]

if your looking for sparks, try a microwave mots transformer, use the middle prong on the base plate. big sparks.

[funwithpower4242]

one of the best resources for making a tesla coil is http://www.pupman.com/ - they have years of archives of coil building adivce to search through, or you can join their mailing list and ask what questions that you cant find answers to in the existing knowledge base

[nonickname]

Tesla coils are extremely simple. They are just air-cored resonant transformers. Capacitor charges, sparkgap fires, primary coil fires, secondary coil picks up current, bang you have sparks. If you can't get an even basic understanding of tesla coils then maybe it isn't for you..

[thermoelectric]

(removed by author or community request)

[puffyfluff]

It is finished or published yet. I'd kind of advise not linking it anywhere else.

[thermoelectric]

I said that? My memory must be failing...

[ubicomp]

I'm just a curious bystander in this conversation, but has anyone thought to try to set that pvc pipe up on a motor to slowly rotate? Then you let the motor do the work while you simply guide the wire. Seems like it would save a LOT of time, given how much wire you have to spool onto it. Just an observation.

[critterfluffy]

actually, when I would one of my coils I used a foot pedal from a sewing machine and variac and a motor.  You use the variac to set the speed of the motor and then you use the foot pedal to turn it on and off.  It works really well and prevents any problems.  Me and another person wound our coil(4.5 feet of it) in about 3 - 5 hours.  Not 100% on the time frame since it was over 8 years ago.

[puffyfluff]

Yes, you can. I bought a 5 RPM motor off of ebay for a buck, and used that. I sat next to it and wrote emails, taking the occasional glance and slight move of the wire feeding mechanism. I actually did it with my one foot one and my 3.5 foot one.

[Professor Tor Coolguy]

yesss, thats what you do if your crazy.

[Nagarjun Bhat]

Can you kindly let me know if you wound the wire so closely with your hand??
How many turns per inch could you achieve??

[gomjjabar]

I'm knew so I don't know the protocol. Should I make comments to this project or just submit an alternate method of winding? I start here: To keep the windings tight and even, before starting the winding, apply 3 or 4 strips of double-sided tape down the entire length of the core. Or, spray a small amount of aerosol adhesive (I 've used 3M Super 77) to the core as you go. Either method einsures close windings, liimited pressure to the wire and your delicate paws. One more advantage is that if you experience a wire break it's easy to make a splice. I've wound at least 10 secondaries fo various diameters and lengths with no problems what-so-ever. CAIO

[puffyfluff]

Probably make a new one.

[Professor Tor Coolguy]

(removed by author or community request)

[puffyfluff]

I have done a lot of research on trinary coils. They seem cool. I kind of built one, but it wasn't very big. I got 4 foot sparks from 5 amps, though!

[me835]

I'd love to see an instructable on it. would you just design the secondary circuit similar to the primary's, except with all tolerances, ratings, and values adjusted accordingly?

[nitrocrawler95]

I have a question. To avoid hours of winding, couldn't you tape the roll of magnetic tape or just unwind the roll a little then tape it and cut the side off. Then all you would have to do is slide the wire off the roll.

[dtphoto]

why not just attach a variable speed electric drill with sufficient torque to the tube (cut to final length) and speed up the winding process? You can get a 3" hole cutter and wedge in a few pieces of wood to fill the gaps. Put your wire spool on it's side in a box to prevent rolling away and then you can finish the coil in a fraction of the time.

[chriskarr]

I've tried this, and it can work, but the spacers really ruin it for you... If the form is PVC and too long, the support from the drill will cause the tube to warp and when this happens, it will go 'flop, flop, flop' with one 'flop' every revolution, and your coil will have a point, each revolution, at which it is nearly impossible to keep tension, and another where the tension is greater than expected and the possibility of a wire snap is greater than normal.

[sueman2]

how do you make a tesla coil?

[TheMadScientist]

is it just me, or does anyone else here think the guy that made this said to himself... "hmm, I think that would make an AWESOME paper towel holder" and Now that I mention it.. PAPER TOWEL HOLDER OF ULTIMATE DOOM.

[Professor Tor Coolguy]

(removed by author or community request)

[WudWar]

Check out the great free program from. http://www.teslamap.com/

[puffyfluff]

I use Tesla Map too, but if you just want a quick rough calculation, this is a good program for the basics. An online calculator that is also helpful (with a lot of general information too) is Deep Fried Neon.

[WudWar]

Thanks a lot, those are both great tools that I've never seen before.

[puffyfluff]

You're welcome.

[robodud3]

right so i need to make a coil too but i need to find a website where i can get the right numbers to make it work i plan in making the secondary coil only about 3-4 feet high and spend only about $50 for a transformer and the rest of the parts for $25 or so if any1 can hepl me it would be appreciated

[puffyfluff]

Oh, and another note-a two foot long secondary is about 1300 feet of 22 awg wire! It might be hard to find that for less than 25 bucks, and a variac might pose some financial problems too...

[puffyfluff]

Equations-
Here
Here
Here

[puffyfluff]

WOW! TELL ME WHERE YOU GET THAT TRANSFORMER! I was lucky to get mine free-being a minor helps impress the people at your local transformer store (yes, only a few miles from my house, and I'm twelve). Otherwise, it would have cost over $300 dollars on ebay.

[Professor Tor Coolguy]

(removed by author or community request)

[hivoltage]

i actually found the plans for my coil in a book i bought at borders: "Electronics projects for the evil genius", but there are plenty of sites with plans on them. there are also computer programs you can download to calculate the specs of a coil based on the transformer you have, etc...

[Professor Tor Coolguy]

everyones got that book cause its the best one.

[robodud3]

thanx dude oh amn this will be wikid and do u have a link to any of the calculators

[puffyfluff]

Tesla Map
Tesla Coil CAD
Deep Fried Neon

These are my favorites.

[The-Repair-Man]

sorry but this is all new to me can the magnetic wire be wrapped around wood

[Einsteins Circuitry]

To keep it short and simple, NO! Don't try it. It's really dangerous to do with wood. (fire)