Proper Workshop

Not working on the tesla tonight, waiting for quite a lot of parts to turn up, hopefully some will come tomorrow so I can finish the Terry filter. Took some pics of my workshop first is my most useful tool, my little milling machine bought from Machinemart. It's a Clarke CMD300, I modified it by fitting a belt drive system and also x and y digital vernier scales which negates any slop in the bed.

Here's a close-up of the digital readouts. Makes a good milling machine great.

This is my little Hobbymat lathe, would like something a little larger but don't think I can fit anything else in.

As you can see, not a lot of room left.

If your interested the car is a Westfield I built a few years back. Here's another pic with it out in the sun outside the SVA centre.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Progress with filters

Finished off the RFI/EMI filter module today, it's mounted on a piece of black acrylic which, in turn, is mounted on the main base on 25mm ceramic insulators. Have ran out of this size of insulators so will have to re-order some more from a seller on ebay.

Have now finished all the soldering on the Terry filter, it has come out OK and is almost ready for mounting on its acrylic base. I have ordered a strip of 8mm by 3mm brass which will be used as the ground rail down the centre of the Terry filter. I have been lookong for suitable electrical connectors to use on the Terry filter but could not find anything other than pretty crappy ring connectors. I was looking for similar ones to the copper lugs used by Alan from Teslastuff, his plans show these used in a variety of places on the Tesla. I emailed Alan to see if I could buy some from him and I now have 16 of them winging their way from the US.

The brass strip will be fitted over the feint pencil line. The plastic bolt in the centre locates into one of the 25mm insulators and just gives the centre of the board a little support. The next pics shows the 2 filters back in situ on the main base. Have just ordered some 60mm M6 bolts which I will use to locate the three terminal posts on the input side of the Terry filter.

Draft placement of filters

Couple of pieces of plastic turned up today. One for the base of the Terry filter and one for mounting the line filter. I had already picked up a piece of pcb from Maplin so I can now work out the layout of the first level.





The acrylic bases are both black and will be mounted on small ceramic insulators.






As you can see I have placed the components just to get an idea of the spacing.






Line filter is rated at 20amp and was a cheap purchase on eBay, should look good mounted on the black acrylic board.






Spent the rest of tonight soldering the components of the Terry filter.






Not the best soldering in the world but I'm getting better.






Will finish off the soldering of the end component next session. Also need to order a brass strip for the central ground.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Makeshift Workshop

Starting to take over the living room

From the bottom up

The original plans from Teslastuff.com show how to construct the base from circular pine sheet and uprights made from pvc pipe. I decided to carry on with my perspex theme so all the components will be visible but still enclosed. I purchased a hefty piece of 15mm thick 50cm by 50cm clear perspex from Trent Plastics which should give me enough room to mount the Neon Transformer, Terry filter and line filter plus a terminal block for line in from the variac. Other components would be mounted on a second level. To allow the whole thing to be easily moved I fitted good quality castors. I could have drilled and threaded some holes to fit them but decided to try some threaded brass inserts that are hammered in to 8mm holes and have an M6 internal thread. Here's a pic of the perspex base, its still covered in the protective plastic and a full coat of masking tape.

Here is one of the 16 brass inserts used to fit the castors. It's a bit easier using these than having to drill and tap 16 holes. They produce a very strong fitting as when the bolt is inserted they expand into the drilled hole.



Here's one of the castors fitted, should make moving the Tesla coil a little easier.

There is plenty of space for the Neon Transformer, Terry filter and line filter. Both filters will be mounted on perspex bases partly for look and partly to allow easy removal of any single component.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Worlds nicest Variac

The first bit of the build was to create a case for the variac. I thought it looked really good and it would be a shame to stick it in a metal box. Decided to keep it on display by casing it in perspex. Had lots of small taps and stainless allen key bolts hanging around so decided to bolt it together rather than glue. Trent Plastics was found (eBay again), a supply of many types of plastic sheet and tube. They can supply cut to size so saved me hours of measuring and cutting. The main tube is 250mm diameter 6mm wall, the top holds all the weight so I went for 8mm thick clear perspex. The base is 5mm thick in black cos I thought the base would get scratched pretty quick so clear was probably not a good idea. The next pic shows Variac fitted to top plate and top plate bolted to main tube. Bolts are M3 so not a lot of room for error when drilling holes in the main tube.








After drilling and tapping to fit the base I decided to fabricate some handles which would be fitted to the 4 bolts that mount the Variac to the top plate which meant there would be no stress to the perspex when lifting. Also drilled some vent holes in the base and the top plate, small feet on the base provides clearance for air to enter circulate passed the coils and then out through vent holes in the top plate. Drilled 12mm holes for retro style 20amp switch and 3 10.7mm holes for the glands. The glands have a 12mm 1.5 tpi thread so another ebay purchase was required for the tap and 10.7mm drill bit.







Well happy with the result, handles are solid 16mm aluminium rod, I milled the ends so the M8 x 70 bolts sit nice.







Vent holes are 12mm, you have to go quite slow when drilling otherwise the perspex just melts. Worked well clearing the swarf regularly off the bit. May need more vents, just have to see how it goes.







Switch sits in another 12mm hole. Room for extra vent holes either side of the switch if needed.







Here you can see the 3 glands. One will be 240v mains in, one will be 240v out via switch (may use for quench fan) the other is variable voltage out via the variac. Wiring is the next job.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Neon Transformer Arrives

Next to turn up was the neon transformer and it weighed 56lbs and looked very scary. Found it on ebay from a company called Teslastuff based in Minnesota US. It's rated at 60mA 15kv and has no GFI (ground force interrupter?). Apparently that's what required when building a Tesla coil. The guy who runs this company also supplies loads of other goodies for Tesla coil building including a great set of plans for the build.

Very heavy small wooden coffin from US

Inside one very scary 15kv Neon Transformer

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

New Tesla arrivals

I am a few weeks into the build of a fairly large Tesla coil and I thought I would create this blog to record my progress and hopefully get some positive feedback if I get stuck along the way. I have already got a couple of the main components. The first to arrive was a 10 amp variac which I purchased on ebay from a company called Wattbits, ebay shop can be found at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Wattbits?_trksid=p4340.l2563

I bought the panel mount version with no casing partly due to being a lot cheaper than the cased version and I decided to make a perspex casing.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad