Hi everyone, as part of my high school final exams I've prepared an essay on Nikola Tesla and decided to build a Tesla Coil to demonstrate some electromagnetic phenomenas. Considering that I'd prefer to recreate Tesla's original design of the coil, I'm going to build a small version of the spark gap Tesla Coil, though I would appreciate some help to figure out if the circuit could work.


First, since I've already built a simple flyback transformer circuit in the past, I'd like to know if it's possibile to use it as the high voltage power supply for the tesla coil: you can find the complete circuit design that I inserted in the message. Also, I need to know what kind of HV capacitor I should use: 4nF 20/40kV should be fine? And how much copper (both length and weight are fine answers) may I need for the primary and the secondary windings? I was also thinking of using 0.5mm wire for the secondary and 4/5mm for the primary, are they ok? Last, are there some parts of the circuit which might accidentally kill or severely injury someone?


I don't need the circuit to be complicated or extremely efficient, but it must work at least. I can post the Sketchup model of the coil if you need it.



Thanks in advance for all the answers!

 

That looks good to me. If you look here, some schematics have the cap & spark gap swapped.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Spa...e=off&tbm=isch&q=Spark+gap+Tesla+coil+flyback

Also check videos on YouTube.

 

That looks good to me. If you look here, some schematics have the cap & spark gap swapped.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Spa...e=off&tbm=isch&q=Spark+gap+Tesla+coil+flyback

Also check videos on YouTube.

Thanks for the quick response! What kind of HV caps do you think I need? And could the overall circuit be higly dangerous to handle?

 

Welcome to AAC!

might accidentally kill or severely injury someone?

This is a very real possibility which puts this post in the gray area in terms of restricted topics.

 

I got these for a similar circuit in the high frequency arc start for my TIG welder.
5 pcs High Voltage Ceramic Disc Capacitors 1000pf 1nf 0.001uf 102 30000V 30KV
I use a spark plug for a cheap spark gap, Gapped at 0.075". You can use a small hose clamp to attach a wire to the threaded area.
The circuit is the same until the last 1000 turn coil for the Tesla. It is only about 20 turns to superimpose the HF onto the welding cables.

 

Welcome to AAC!

This is a very real possibility which puts this post in the gray area in terms of restricted topics.

Thanks for your answer, what part of the circuit could be dangerous? The spark gap, the high voltage input or the high voltage output?

 

UPDATE: since I couldn't find a 20kV cap I'm going to use 15/16 2kV caps in series. Are there any problems linked to using multiple caps in high voltage circuits?