1. Home
  2. Electronics Design
  3. More tesla coil questions.

More tesla coil questions.

This is the third time I have posted to this group about the same tesla coil within two weeks, but I have new materials and questions that come with them. First, one of the postings said i want to look for 28 awg wire. I have alot of 40 awg wire, would this be two thin for a coil running on an input of 5-10 kv with a 40 nf capacitor bank? Also, I went super cheap on the toroid and bought three feet of aluminum dryer hose. After being shaped like a dougnut it had a nine inch diameter and is 4.5 inches tall. Is this too big for a coil 2.5 by 10 inches? I have some copper stranded speaker wire about 18 awg. would this be thick enough for a coil with this much power? And lastly how many turns should I use for this primary, and how far apart should I space them? if you can answer even just one question, I would greatly apprecieate it.

Reply to
ngdbud
Loading thread data ...

Sign up for the tesla mailing list, those guys have years of experience. They have built hundreds of tesla coils. They are very helpful to beginners. >>>>

formatting link
wire. I have alot of 40 awg wire, would this be two thin for a coil

Reply to
amdxjunk

Thanks for your help. I'll keep your suggestions in mind. I hope to escape to one of my better local electronics stores an buy 28 awg wire for the secondary.

Reply to
ngdbud

The biggest problem I see is 40 AWG wire. I would keep shopping to get something anywhere from the mid 20's to the mid 30's rather than using 40.

The top load seems large to me, but I see this being more of a problem if you also have the secondary wire size too thin and less of a problem if you do not. I would have the top load height about the same as the secondary diameter and width twice that. I have seen others do well with larger top loads (to better impair corona when voltage is really high) if everything else is optimized.

18 gauge wire for the primary I see being thinner than optimum, but I see this doing only a little damage to the performance. I would experiment with the number of turns for best results, starting with about 12 turns.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.