Lance

United nuclear used to sell a uranium salt. Im not sure I would want to be around that stuff!

You can make ozone very easily with a neon sign transformer. Just get two pieces of glass with aluminum on the outside with a gap of air on the inside.

What isn’t radioactive or dangerous? The danger of radiation is overrated anyway. You’re ok as long as you’re not around it for long periods. That is of course unless you breathe it or swallow it and it gets stuck in your body.

I also use a power strip which is about 6' away from the coil. I dont use a variac though.

Well there are different versions, yes we do use larger versions. I don’t think you could interchange them. Although if I lived in the UK I would try running two 120v NSTs with the Primary’s in series and the secondary parallel. That way you get twice the current. Although The UK uses 50 Hz instead of 60 Hz here so I'm not sure how that would go over.

The only wires you would be near when it’s on are the primary of the NST which is only 120V. There is no danger from just plugging it in. Normal wires could easily withstand the few amps a small NST will draw. The Secondary of the NST (primary of the tesla coil) should probably be made with high voltage wire so you can make everything compact. The current will not be that high on this side. To test the safe distance just makes sure there is a ground rod between you and the coil. That way you can gauge the correct distance in safety.

The difference is only small in that experiment because the resistance of the foil is so small. If the foil had the same resistance as the pear (imagine two people hugging) Then the current would be split equally between the two.

The frequency also has a large effect. The streamers you are seeing are actually a few thousand sparks on top of each other. The first ionizes the air and then another spark travels through the ionized path and gets a but further and the next spark gets even further and so on.

The arc will jump about 3/4" but then as the air ionizes and heats up you can drag the arc out about 3"

If you use a single pulse cap with an NST then no; the cap will drain through the secondary. If you use a MMC then you need a resistor on EVERY capacitor. If you used a single resistor then the overall voltage on all the caps could be 0 but there could still be a charge on individual caps.

My current bank is 18 1600v .12uf caps in series.

That’s great. Just don’t expect to get those sized arcs or you will be disappointed. For those still confused about what a tesla coil is look here.

By the way I was just wondering how exactly would you go about grating aluminum foil? With a cheese grater?

Well the 'good' transformers are for much larger signs. I think 12-30 transformers are rated for 45' of 15mm neon tubing.

It seems like it would be easier just to find an aluminum block (like a heat sink) and file it down.

Well first of all it pretty easy to tell the difference between the normal transformers and solid-state. The Normal ones will weigh about 15-30lb for a 12-30 transformer. They will also be in a grounded metal case filled with tar or some other heavy insulator. You can also look at the label, generally they will say what frequency they run at. Good bad!!!!

Yes, but the small ones are only for small signs and are solid-state/ high frequency. They wont work for a tesla coil.

Well.... I don’t think I have ever really seen the sizes defined. I think the big/small is based on the power of the power supply. I would say 100-300W=small 300-600W=Medium and more than that Large. But that’s just an opinion. I’m sure everybody would define it differently. You could also define size as based on caps and the diameter of your secondary. It’s really impossible to say the arc length based on the power supply alone and I don’t really have enough experience to say anyway.

That's the one question I get asked the most, and yet I still have not come up with a decent answer. Why not? Why do any of the experiments shown in this forum? Why do people collect stamps and build model airplanes? Why do artists paint and photographers take pictures? Why do people jump off cliffs with an elastic cord tied to there feet? Beats me.

Yea, it’s a very distinctive smell. It’s impossible to mistake for anything else.

An ignition coil has a ferrite core. Although I *think* its just a rod. I have heard of people removing the rod and runing them as solid state telsa coils but you cant get very far because the insulation will break down.