150VA Tabletop Tesla Coil

(June 30, 2007)
I was looking up flyback transformers on the web and found the tesla coil. The more I looked and the more I tinkered and researched, this was the result five months or so later. It�s powered by a 5kv/30ma 5030 PKM-1 Franceformer. Cap bank is variable from 0.03uF@6.5kv to 0.0075uF@26kv and is tapped at 0.01uF@19.5kv. Finding some cheap caps that would last took some effort, but I found some nice $1 oil caps at alltronics.com. Where you might need about 50 Cornell Dublier for $170 or so, you could just use about 50 of these cheap things for $60 or so. Spark gap is two 2” long 1” copper tube couplings. The gap quencher is a 50 watt 12v vacuum motor from a rechargeable Dirt Devil. Primary is 12 turns of 11 AWG wire 0.5” from the secondary tapped at 7.5. Secondary is 2” PVC (2.375” OD) with a winding length of 13” of 28 AWG wire coated with polyurethane. Topload is 3” aluminum ducting coated with aluminum tape with a diameter of 11” and a fork handle as a breakout. At one point, there was some static buildup on the secondary and it got my attention as I handled it, but it still wasn�t as bad as the shocks I�ve gotten from the doors of some vehicles. It produces 12” sparks.