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**KignPeeseeamn** · 05-14-2012, 07:51 AM

Little transformer. Big spark. That leads us to… The capacitor bank

No, I didn’t roll my own capacitors for this project. But I did make a nifty laser cut housing for them. Also, bleeder resistors are important for preventing unexpected surprises. Like waking up dead after touching this crazy toy.

Stand well clear. The caps are 942C20P15K-F by Cornell Dubilier (the cap of choice when your current absolutely, positively needs to get there ON TIME). Since the housing is made of highly conductive aluminum, electrical connections are made with 40kV high voltage wire.
The coils

All of that circuitry strobes the primary coil, protected by a couple of chunks of black HDPE (also milled on the Fadal).

HV wire. Red means DANGER. The HDPE sandwich makes a great electrical insulator, helping to prevent arcs between the primary and secondary coils. The bottom of the secondary is also wound with PTFE tape (another great insulator, commonly found at Home Depot). The coil form is a piece of 2.5″ ABS pipe (Home Depot again FTW!) wrapped in 30 gauge enameled wire, then sprayed with polyurethane finish (can you tell that the Home Depot is just a few minutes drive from my lair?)http://hackerfriendly.com/the-tesla-gun/

~1100 turns of #30. The top load is an aluminum toroid purchased from Information Unlimited (sadly I don’t have access to a lathe big enough to turn one myself.) Put it all together and there you have it: instant lightning at your trigger-happy fingertips.

Really, officer, it’s just a movie prop! It couldn’t possibly be as dangerous as it looks.
Of course, the devil is in the details. How do you tune this beast? What about eddy currents in the housing? What do you use for an earth ground? Why is it so LOUD? How do you not die while operating it? I’m afraid that this post has already gone on far too long. I’ll explain a bit about those topics in future posts. Until then, stay safe and make AWESOME.

05-14-2012, 07:51 AM	#2
KignPeeseeamn Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 460 Senior Member	Little transformer. Big spark. That leads us to… The capacitor bank No, I didn’t roll my own capacitors for this project. But I did make a nifty laser cut housing for them. Also, bleeder resistors are important for preventing unexpected surprises. Like waking up dead after touching this crazy toy. Stand well clear. The caps are 942C20P15K-F by Cornell Dubilier (the cap of choice when your current absolutely, positively needs to get there ON TIME). Since the housing is made of highly conductive aluminum, electrical connections are made with 40kV high voltage wire. The coils All of that circuitry strobes the primary coil, protected by a couple of chunks of black HDPE (also milled on the Fadal). HV wire. Red means DANGER. The HDPE sandwich makes a great electrical insulator, helping to prevent arcs between the primary and secondary coils. The bottom of the secondary is also wound with PTFE tape (another great insulator, commonly found at Home Depot). The coil form is a piece of 2.5″ ABS pipe (Home Depot again FTW!) wrapped in 30 gauge enameled wire, then sprayed with polyurethane finish (can you tell that the Home Depot is just a few minutes drive from my lair?)http://hackerfriendly.com/the-tesla-gun/ ~1100 turns of #30. The top load is an aluminum toroid purchased from Information Unlimited (sadly I don’t have access to a lathe big enough to turn one myself.) Put it all together and there you have it: instant lightning at your trigger-happy fingertips. Really, officer, it’s just a movie prop! It couldn’t possibly be as dangerous as it looks. Of course, the devil is in the details. How do you tune this beast? What about eddy currents in the housing? What do you use for an earth ground? Why is it so LOUD? How do you not die while operating it? I’m afraid that this post has already gone on far too long. I’ll explain a bit about those topics in future posts. Until then, stay safe and make AWESOME.
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