How Do You Make A Trashy Telsa Coil?
• Collect a power supply like a small neon sign transformer. • Assemble your discharge capacitors. Due to the high voltage generated by the coil, you will probably need several capacitors linked together in series so that the voltage across each capacitor is sufficient for your power supply. • Create the spark gap using a pair of 1/4″ bolts and nuts. The simplest spark gap would be to have two finely threaded screws as electrodes, with the spark gap distance being adjustable. The problem with simple spark gaps is this: once the air between the gap has been ionized with the arc, the resistance of the gap is reduced partially due to the increase in air temperature, allowing the frequency of the system to fluctuate. This is not good. To reduce this effect, it is desired to “quench” or cool the spark gap. There are several ways to accomplish this task. One way is to have multiple spark gaps, say a half dozen or so in series. This helps keep the temperature of each gap at a minimum. You cou
