Tesla coil Build comparison. (Proof of ability)

[Pirate88179]

TK:

The photo above of your build is beautiful!  Everything is aligned and parallel and level and demonstrates your craftsmanship very well.  I do not have enough knowledge, or balls, yet to build a Tesla Coil, but I am enjoying your videos.

Bill

[TinselKoala]

Thanks Bill! But... heh.... don't look too closely! Angles aren't too precise, dimensions vary, things only line up and fit one way... I'm working with an old small Ryobi bandsaw, a drill press and a T-square and that's about it. And I can't tell you how many times I've screwed something up by trying to make it just that little bit better.

Like that coil form. I should have made 3 rings instead of two and put one in the middle, because the coil wire pulls the "waist" of the thing in until it looks like a dress form or a dice cup or something. I finally broke one of the vertical pieces and had to re-glue it, while re-routing the wiring and adding a turn, after that picture. And I'm still not convinced that the 4 dowels in the corners of the base unit are actually vertical, my glasses distort so much the whole thing looks to me like it's leaning over.

But it's fun building and seeing something come together in reality as I envision it in my mind's eye. It is especially gratifying to me _under the circumstances_ that I designed the coil using a comprehensive Tesla coil calculator based on conventional electromagnetic theory, and the coil works as calculated. The tuning is so very narrow and precise that even the coupling of 0.122, set by the winding heights and spacing, is critical for it to work right. As I clean it up and get the spark gap working better it approaches the predicted performance given by the calculator.

The spark gap is critical, and this gap is now working well. I now set the 5 individual gaps with a 0.020 feeler gauge so that they are all even and all parallel. This gives a total gap of just 0.1 inch and gives great performance in streamer length, less noise in the audio frequency and greater spectral purity in the RF.

Did you notice? I have attracted the lone Drive-By Thumbs-Downer Troll, or another one, and some sock puppets. Of course they are too cowardly to leave any reasons for their droppings, knowing that if they don't have a cogent argument I will ban them at the first sign of trollery or insult. 
I am greatly amused by this activity. In fact I don't think I'm reaching my Target Audience unless little Trolly-poo wakes up one of his sock puppet accounts and leaves a little dropping.

[TinselKoala]

 

[TinselKoala]

Here's an interesting image.

The exposure was 1/13 second, or 0.0769 sec.
I count 31 individual psarks in that time, in that nice fan portion. This means that the spark gap is firing at a rate of (31/0.0769) Hz... or 403 Hz.

Coincidence?

[Pirate88179]

TK:

I have never seen anything like that...totally cool.  Those fan like sparks are a work of art.

Bill