Shop Projects 9/23 - Homemade Tesla Coil Part 1

Now that the glassblowing lathe is done I can finally start work on the vacuum-tube-based HV power supply for a Tesla-style Tesla coil.

Here's the rough plans I'm working from.  Almost all of the components are here, it all just needs to be put together and tested.

I'm taking my time, especially with early layout, because I want the whole thing to look nice when it's all mounted+assembled.

Tested the heaters on the vacuum tube, everything looks good there.  Nice warm glow🤗

Next I figured I'd assemble the HV rectifier portion (turns the microwave oven transformer AC into HV DC at around 2.2-3kv.

Lucky I had some HV caps laying around from an ancient Tesla coil to act as filters.

HV rectifier board assembled and soldered.  Going to apply some black corona dope to prevent any sparking, but at only 3kv it's not a huge concern.

Brief test with the MOT (microwave oven transformer) to ensure nothing blows up and I have the polarities correct.   All is good here.🧐

Doing a little rough layout to see how everything is going to get mounted.

Getting a couple other small parts out-of-the-way, winding the RF choke and bending/cutting the copper strap to attach the plate and grid connections on the vacuum tube.

Took a couple iterations but surprisingly fast and painless.

That's about it for today.  Next I think I will probably start working on the case panels to mount everything, and then hopefully do a couple low-power tests just to try and get the thing to oscillate.  It's my first time working with tubes so there is still quite a bit of voodoo before I can get comfortable.

Hope you enjoyed😛