The pictures on this site are various shots of my Tesla Coil along with descriptions of the main components.  For those who don't know, a Tesla Coil is a device originally created by Nikola Tesla back around 1896.  In essence it is basically a high frequency, high voltage generator.  It generates high voltage sparks anywhere from less than 1 inch to well over 20 feet representing anywhere from 10's of thousands to millions of volts!  Needless to say, to many it's effects are most mesmerizing.

   This is the best Tesla coil I have built to date.  I completed it September 25th, 2000 after three months of fabrication and construction.  This particular coil has also given me the greatest spark length for the input power of any coil I have ever created and ranks up there with the best of any I have seen on the web.  To date (03/03/02) it has produced a maximum arc of 40 inches point to point using one unmodified, 120 volt driven, 15,000 volt 30ma neon sign transformer!

   This site focuses on some of the specifics of the construction and specs of the individual components that make up the system.  Enough detail is given and seen to help enable an eager coiler to build a similar system.  No information is given as to how a Tesla coil actually works.  There are a multitude of websites out there that do a good job of detailing theory of operation.  I have included a "Links and Files" page that includes some of the better or more interesting coiling related sites I have stumbled upon over the last few years.  I've also included links to many companies that supply Tesla related items or materials that could be used in the construction of a coil.

   If one considers making a coil they should be aware that since it consists of electrical components that are exposed to considerable levels of high voltage and stress, that some items may fail over time.  Don't expect to build a coil and believe it will run forever without a glitch.  Since I completed this coil almost two years ago I am on my second neon sign transfomer, have toasted a few of the individual capacitors in the MMC (about 4 or 5 of them) burned up 3 or 4 of the bleeder resistors across the MMC capacitors and have toasted most of the MOTS in the neon sign transformer protection circuit.  Not too costly but not an indestructable machine and I would consider myself relatively fortunate as far as hardware failures go.

Note: All photos except those on the "See the Sparks" page were taken with a Canon S30 digital camera at the 1024 X 768 resolution and the least compression (best quality) setting.  All of the images (large thumbnails) excluding those on the "See the Sparks" page can be clicked and a new browser window will be launched with the full sized image.  Be forewarned that the larger versions of the images range from 42k to 132k, not huge but not tiny either.  The thumbnails range in size from 11k - 23k, this way each page loads relatively fast even though there may be many images on the page.  The images on the "See the Sparks" page were taken with a Kodak DC260 digital camera.  If I can get comparable or better images of the arcs with my S30 camera then I shall replace the images on that page in the near future.

Disclaimer: The author of this site is not responsible for any injury or loss of any kind brought about using any information presented on this site.  Furthermore, information presented on this site is intended for non commercial educational use only and the author asserts no liability (expressed or implied) of any kind for any use or misuse of such information contained herein.