Make your own Tesla Coil!

Introduction

Nikola tesla originally invented the tesla coil in 1891, Ever since then wireless power has become a reality. It's not really used in homes or industrial factories or power plants, but it is a invention electrical engineers use to demonstrate electricity traveling through thin air. tesla coils can power fluorescent bulbs and tubes, and neon blubs all wirelessly. they also create massive "Electro Magnetic Fields" or E.M.F. For short.

But is it possible to make one at home? Yes, its very possible, and you can make one from household materials. So lets do just exactly that.

Project Build

how a we going to make this? well I would start with a Paper towel roll, or PVC pipe depending on you have at home, that should be it for the tower of the tesla coil. lets add that to the blueprint.

Now that we have a tube use insulated Copper wire you can also order it online. Start by wrapping the wire around the pipe.

But remember, always add some tape on the sides of the tesla coil otherwise the whole coil could unwind and you would have to wind the coil again with messy tied up copper wire, so remember to add the tape. For the Primary coil I used thick AC wire wraped around the secondary coil about 3 times, tape this winding also. Now we have the windings on the list.

After winding the coil, I started by gluing the whole structure of the tesla coil. like for example gluing the buttons and switches and indicator lights so they are securely in place.

I even had a little fun and added some printed stickers I made for the tesla coil.

And if you look closely I added a spot to display my neon bulbs. It doubles as a display and it stores them so I can easily take them in and out when I need them, along with my brand "Miles Incorporated" on the right side of the printed sticker.

And the inside well you can imagine what is looks like. I have the MOSFET and the resistors, wires, on/off power switch, along with the 24v DC jack.

you get the idea. Anyway lets start the next section.

Building the body

ok, so now were gonna need to build the tesla coil its going to need to be sturdy, plastic, and look good so lets start building.

I used a plastic box for the body of the tesla coil and I will say it looks pretty ok. Now where your building it you might wanna use something that looks a little less garbagy and I agree with that. If you have a 3D Printer you could 3D Print a box for the tesla coil. But for me I do not own a 3D Printer yet. But the easy option is to get a plastic container in my opinion. your decision.

There. let's add the body to our blueprint

Now we have the body off our list but what is next? the Electronics.

Electronics

Now for the electronics part of the project. This part might be hard for most people but If you order the parts online then it should be easy.

So were going to want to start wiring the circuit according to the circuit diagram. Now you may be confused. How am I going to make a circuit with a bunch of random electrical components? Well you can wire the circuit with a solderless breadboard for the non permanent version. and for a more permanent solderable version use a PCB board you can get cheap form Digi-Key or Amazon.

So start wiring the circuit according to the circuit diagram. when your done with the circuit it's easy to get wires mixed up and this could make it so your tesla coil does not work when you wire it. so make sure that Positive + is wired to one side of the primary coil, and make sure that the Collector the middle pin of the transistor is wired to the other side of the primary coil. And the emitter goes to the output of the secondary coil.

I know that was a lot of information so here is a helpful schematic.

Testing

WARNING:

This next section deals with extremely high voltage and it may burn or shock a person. It is good idea that you know what you are doing in this next section of the project. Never touch the output of the tesla coil while it is on.

Now to do this safely plug in the circuit with 24 volts DC and turn the switch in the ON position, then the blue LED should light up as soon as you turn it on. But here's the real test. Try getting a fluorescent bulb and hold it near the tesla coil. does it light up?

so if it lit up when near the coil then CONGRATS! you made a slayer exciter tesla coil! But for those who didn't get it to work that's okay you may have Reversed the connections to the primary coil. Now to solve this, simply reverse the wires going to the primary coil.

Ok so after you reverse the wires try to light up the light bulb again. if it worked CONGRATS again! you made a slayer exciter tesla coil!

but there is still a small chance it may have not worked even after that. That's normal, tesla coils are hard instruments to work with. So here are so debugging tips below.

• 1. Make sure there is power to the tesla coil.

• 2. Reverse the connections to the primary coil.

• 3. Check if the circuit it wired correctly.

• 4. Make sure you have the right MOSFET, Model: BD241C is used.

• 5. Always strip the coating of insulated copper wire for the secondary coil.

• 6. Don't use non-insulated copper wire for windings in this project.

These tips should help you if the tesla coil is not working. And if needed YouTube has a lot of good videos on how to do this project, so by all means go ahead and check YouTube if your tesla coil is not working.

Overloading

IMPORTANT: One of the components in this project is at high risk for burning out at this voltage, and it is the potentiometer. The potentiometer can easily burn out and it's happened to me before. My first prototype of this tesla coil was a bad failure after about 2 minutes of running the tesla coil I smelled burning. And then I started to see smoke so I instantly turned of the device and the smoke stopped. but I was wondering what component overheated? I then realized that it was the potentiometer smoking and luckily not my MOSFET burning out. So when you build this project for yourself make sure you use a heavy duty potentiometer or not add one if you don't have a reasonable potentiometer for this project. Just a good thing to know before turning on the circuit.

Having fun

I never told you that you can do fun tricks with this project, you can try for yourself at home with your new Tesla Coil!

Now how to do this you ask? it's a simple as this. Hold a CFL bulb near the coil while it is on. It should light up wirelessly! Due to the strong EMF coming from the tesla coil the electricity will excite the gasses inside the CFL making it glow. You can also do this with Fluorescent tubes. The same principles apply. Another thing that will light up near the tesla coil is a Neon Bulb. A Neon Bulb looks like a regular light bulb, but it's different. See, a light bulb the one in everyday life is a filament that heats up to the point where its glowing hot this is one way to produce light, but most of its energy gets wasted by heat. And they burn out quickly. But a Neon Bulb is a little bulb with gasses in it and two electrodes one Positive and the other Negative, Similar to an LED but not exact. But when high voltage is applied to the electrodes the gasses in the bulb get excited and start glowing. The same principle as the CFL bulb. You can even light up an LED very dimly with the tesla coil wirelessly, But LED's are made for low voltage DC and the tesla coil outputs High voltage AC The opposite of what the LED should have but it still works. And I suggest using neon bulbs, neon lamps, florescent bulbs, florescent tubes, CFL bulbs. There are a lot of things that light up near the tesla coil! and sense they light up wirelessly that means if you put something in front of the tesla coil it will still light up! the EMF goes right through objects! you can do this is any material. But do not do it with metal because if you touch something metal near the tesla coil while its on it can shock you! so do not use metal. but here's what it should look like.

It has no problem lighting up even through the wall!

I even got the neon bulb to light up as well!

This does for quite the magic show! try for yourself at home! just don't shock yourself!

Thanks for viewing this Project, I hope it helps people on how to build these contraptions and circuits. If you like this project. go ahead and respect the project and comment below on what your thoughts are about this project. And view my profile for more projects like this! Enjoy your new Slayer Exeter Tesla Coil!