Ideas for a tesla coil

[RayRay1132]

It's about that time of year where my parts cabinet is overflowing with junk again, and I want to make another tesla coil with the stuff I have on hand. I already have the coil and matching caps and the transformer but I don't have any diodes.(I do have a surplus of mercury arc rectifiers though) I was wondering how well a set of mercury rectifiers would work in place of a standard diode. Never seen it done before so I figured I'd ask lol.

Thanks in advance -Ray

 

[Reloadron]

All of my early Tesla Coil builds were an old neon sign transformer (15 KV 30 mA) a home brew capacitor, spark gap and the actual hand wound HV coils. I guess I don't see the need for diodes or DC? Pretty crude as can be seen here. I have seen newer transistor types using a simple transistor oscillator to drive the primary but not anything requiring a HV diode? I guess if I wanted HV Diodes I would gut a microwave oven.

Ron

 

[shortbus=]

All of my early Tesla Coil builds were an old neon sign transformer (15 KV 30 mA) a home brew capacitor, spark gap and the actual hand wound HV coils. I guess I don't see the need for diodes or DC? Pretty crude as can be seen here. I have seen newer transistor types using a simple transistor oscillator to drive the primary but not anything requiring a HV diode? I guess if I wanted HV Diodes I would gut a microwave oven.

Ron

Yeah, but your logical.

 

[unclejed613]

All of my early Tesla Coil builds were an old neon sign transformer (15 KV 30 mA) a home brew capacitor, spark gap and the actual hand wound HV coils. I guess I don't see the need for diodes or DC? Pretty crude as can be seen here. I have seen newer transistor types using a simple transistor oscillator to drive the primary but not anything requiring a HV diode? I guess if I wanted HV Diodes I would gut a microwave oven.

Ron

i used to build mine with oil furnace transformers, but pretty much the same circuit. i made my own HV caps out of plate glass, and aluminum foil. don't know why anyone would use HVDC in the primary, although it might work ok if you were using a rotary gap as opposed to a continuous spark gap.

 

[RayRay1132]

Yeah, but your logical.

Yeah he is lol, I'm out here trying to

although it might work ok if you were using a rotary gap as opposed to a continuous spark gap.

That's what I was thinking of doing

 

[shortbus=]

Yeah he is lol, I'm out here trying to

Then if I was you I 'd do more research before doing much more. Even if you needed DC using a mercury rectifier doesn't work well unless used on 3Phase input. Each zero crossing needs a new rectifier ignition voltage when doing single phase.

 

[RayRay1132]

Each zero crossing needs a new rectifier ignition voltage when doing single phase.

I only have a one-phase mercury rectifier. I think it's an ignitron type with a filament so it wouldn't need a reignition voltage if I just keep the heater filament on, right?

 

[shortbus=]

Like I said earlier you need to do much more research on this if your building a Tesla coil, and not something that gets called a Tesla coil on Youtube. A true Tesla coil is AC not DC, so no need for a rectifier.

 

[Reloadron]

Like I said earlier you need to do much more research on this if your building a Tesla coil, and not something that gets called a Tesla coil on Youtube. A true Tesla coil is AC not DC, so no need for a rectifier.

As I mentioned earlier mine (first) used a Neon Sign transformer, 15 KV 30 mA. Good thing I never managed to kill myself. Seriously!

Ron