Our glass dinning table made a great flat surface to align the side panels.
Wednesday 20 July 2011
Looks a bit like ORAC
I have decided to enclose the whole assembly with clear 10mm perspex. Maybe this may help prevent strikes but mainly I just think it will look good. I will have to sort out some ventilation, perhaps a fan mounted in one of the perspex walls, not sure yet. For those of you who remember Blakes 7, I can't help thinking about ORAC as I envisage the finished enclosure.
Our glass dinning table made a great flat surface to align the side panels.
Our glass dinning table made a great flat surface to align the side panels.
Sunday 17 July 2011
Multi Mini Capacitor MMC
Today I started on the MMC (multi mini capacitor). The capacitors had arrived from Teslastuff.com a few weeks earlier. The MMC is built up of 40 capacitors, 2 banks of 20 caps in series connected in parallel. Each capacitor is rated at 0.15uf at 2000v as per the original Teslastuff plans.
A bag of 20 capacitors for the first layer of the MMC. This layer would be mounted on a 8mm thick 320mm by 220mm clear perspex board.
The board was covered in masking tape and marked out for drilling.I drilled 1.75mm holes for the cap legs (40 in total), some 4mm holes for mounting onto 1" ceramic stand-offs and 2 6mm holes for the copper lugs. After marking out I attached an identical piece of perspex to the back so I could drill both layers at the same time.
After drilling I mounted the 20 caps to the first level. I twisted the adjacent caps legs together and then laid the bleed capacitors across each cap before soldering.
Also soldered in some copper wire to create the series links between the rows and a couple of terminal loops on the ends.
Above is the first layer completed. The 5 support uprights are 12mm diameter perspex drilled and tapped to accept 4mm bolts. Now for the second layer.
The finished article.
Very pleased with the end result.
Will also be easy to add more layers in the future.
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A bag of 20 capacitors for the first layer of the MMC. This layer would be mounted on a 8mm thick 320mm by 220mm clear perspex board.
The board was covered in masking tape and marked out for drilling.I drilled 1.75mm holes for the cap legs (40 in total), some 4mm holes for mounting onto 1" ceramic stand-offs and 2 6mm holes for the copper lugs. After marking out I attached an identical piece of perspex to the back so I could drill both layers at the same time.
After drilling I mounted the 20 caps to the first level. I twisted the adjacent caps legs together and then laid the bleed capacitors across each cap before soldering.
Also soldered in some copper wire to create the series links between the rows and a couple of terminal loops on the ends.
Above is the first layer completed. The 5 support uprights are 12mm diameter perspex drilled and tapped to accept 4mm bolts. Now for the second layer.
The finished article.
Very pleased with the end result.
Will also be easy to add more layers in the future.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday 12 July 2011
Terry Filter finished
More brass bolts arrived today plus another parcel from Teslastuff.com
I had been looking for some copper or brass electrical lugs for ages. I wanted some that looked a little vintage, similar to the ones used by Alan at Teslastuff in his Tesla coil plans. I didn't have any success and they weren't for sale on Teslastuff.com so I emailed Alan who replied "How many you want?" I ordered plenty as I'm sure I will use more throughout the rest of the build and the price from Alan was very reasonable.
I used five of the lugs and replaced the 2 nylon bolts through the outside safety gap insulators with brass bolts. Also completed the wiring, think you will agree, the finished filter looks amazing.
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I had been looking for some copper or brass electrical lugs for ages. I wanted some that looked a little vintage, similar to the ones used by Alan at Teslastuff in his Tesla coil plans. I didn't have any success and they weren't for sale on Teslastuff.com so I emailed Alan who replied "How many you want?" I ordered plenty as I'm sure I will use more throughout the rest of the build and the price from Alan was very reasonable.
I used five of the lugs and replaced the 2 nylon bolts through the outside safety gap insulators with brass bolts. Also completed the wiring, think you will agree, the finished filter looks amazing.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday 10 July 2011
Terry Filter comes together
Covered the 200mm x 320mm x 5mm black acrylic Terry Filter base with a coating of masking tape which will protect against scratching while drilling and allows me to mark up all the holes. After a trial placing of all the Terry Filter components the board was marked for drilling.
The main pcb and the 2 long resistors will be mounted on 1" high ceramic stand offs which require 4mm holes. The completed Terry Filter module will also be mounted on 1" stand offs, 6 in total. With the board marked up I watched the pretty uneventful start of the British grandprix then made my way out to the garage to drill out the holes.
The board was placed on a flat piece of ply offcut for drilling which prevents the drill bit from damaging the back of the acrylic as it emerges.
When drilling lots of varying size holes I find it useful to mark hole diameters on the work. After drilling the masking tape was removed to reveal a pristine piece of black acrylic with clean tidy mounting holes hopefully in the right places.
First trial fit of the components goes well, all holes line up nicely.
Still waiting for some brass bolts and copper lugs to enable the final assembly.
The safety gap ceramic posts are held in place by 65mm nylon bolts that screw through the base and up into threads in the brass balls. I may change to using metal bolts as the nylon bolts flex and do not hold the safety gap assembly as firm as I would like.
Next job is to make the electrical connectors between the pcb, resistors and terminal posts.
Think it turned out pretty good.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The main pcb and the 2 long resistors will be mounted on 1" high ceramic stand offs which require 4mm holes. The completed Terry Filter module will also be mounted on 1" stand offs, 6 in total. With the board marked up I watched the pretty uneventful start of the British grandprix then made my way out to the garage to drill out the holes.
The board was placed on a flat piece of ply offcut for drilling which prevents the drill bit from damaging the back of the acrylic as it emerges.
When drilling lots of varying size holes I find it useful to mark hole diameters on the work. After drilling the masking tape was removed to reveal a pristine piece of black acrylic with clean tidy mounting holes hopefully in the right places.
First trial fit of the components goes well, all holes line up nicely.
Still waiting for some brass bolts and copper lugs to enable the final assembly.
The safety gap ceramic posts are held in place by 65mm nylon bolts that screw through the base and up into threads in the brass balls. I may change to using metal bolts as the nylon bolts flex and do not hold the safety gap assembly as firm as I would like.
Next job is to make the electrical connectors between the pcb, resistors and terminal posts.
Think it turned out pretty good.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Saturday 9 July 2011
Terry Filter Safety Gap
Today I picked up a parcel from the local Royal Mail depot. Inside was four long awaited 60mm bolts (should have been 8), least I can make a start on the safety gap. First I need to tap 2 holes through the 2 1" brass balls obtained from Teslastuff.com. The holes need to be 5mm which is the size required if tapping out to M6 with 1.0mm threads. The pic below shows how I mounted them for drilling.
I screwed in the bolt to the existing tapped hole to help me drill at 90 degrees to the existing hole. The bolt also prevented the brass ball spinning in the chuck jaws during drilling. It was easy to find the centre point for drilling as I could spin the work in the chuck to show any mis-alignment. After drilling with the centre drill I drilled a 5mm hole completely through each ball.
Next I tapped the holes out to M6 1.0mm threads. Note the plastic jaw covers on the vice to prevent marking my balls!!!
I then polished my balls by mounting them onto a threaded stud held in the chuck and spinning them up against various grades of emery cloth.
The finished articles almost ready to mount on ceramic insulators on the Terry Filter.
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I screwed in the bolt to the existing tapped hole to help me drill at 90 degrees to the existing hole. The bolt also prevented the brass ball spinning in the chuck jaws during drilling. It was easy to find the centre point for drilling as I could spin the work in the chuck to show any mis-alignment. After drilling with the centre drill I drilled a 5mm hole completely through each ball.
Next I tapped the holes out to M6 1.0mm threads. Note the plastic jaw covers on the vice to prevent marking my balls!!!
I then polished my balls by mounting them onto a threaded stud held in the chuck and spinning them up against various grades of emery cloth.
The finished articles almost ready to mount on ceramic insulators on the Terry Filter.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday 5 July 2011
Parts for Synchronous Spark Gap
Another box arrived swiftly from the US. Eagerly unpacked to find a synchronous salient pole motor from Teslastuff.com. This will drive my rotary spark gap. I am informed this is the best way to go for a reasonably large Tesla coil.
As far as I understand (limited but growing knowledge) this motor rotates directly proportional to the AC frequency. This allows the spark gap to be timed so the gap is presented as the capacitor bank reaches an optimum charge level. I found an excellent article on the different types of spark gaps used explaining how they work and pros and cons. The article is by Richie Burnett and can be found at http://www.richieburnett.co.uk/rotary.html
Will need small step down transformer to power it at 115v.
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As far as I understand (limited but growing knowledge) this motor rotates directly proportional to the AC frequency. This allows the spark gap to be timed so the gap is presented as the capacitor bank reaches an optimum charge level. I found an excellent article on the different types of spark gaps used explaining how they work and pros and cons. The article is by Richie Burnett and can be found at http://www.richieburnett.co.uk/rotary.html
Will need small step down transformer to power it at 115v.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Monday 4 July 2011
Parts for Secondary Coil
Just about to start construction of the secondary coil. First bits are here, a 1 metre length of 110mm weld pipe and a 1kg roll of 0.4mm class H winding wire. I picked up the pipe from a koi carp dealer and the wire from Brocott who also have an ebay store if you prefer to buy on ebay.
Decided to go for black piping as the copper winding wire stands out really well against the black.
The nasty looking bottle is anti tracking varnish which I will use to seal the windings, also acquired from Brocott. Winding materials were my fathers day present. Thanks Damien.
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Decided to go for black piping as the copper winding wire stands out really well against the black.
The nasty looking bottle is anti tracking varnish which I will use to seal the windings, also acquired from Brocott. Winding materials were my fathers day present. Thanks Damien.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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