Tesla Coil Construction Guide

The new Tesla Coil Construction Guide replaces the original Tesla Handbook by John H. Couture published in 1988. Because the handbook has proven to be so popular with Tesla coil builders as a construction book it was decided to revise it and bring it up to date under a new name.

Most of the contents of the original handbook has been retained but some obsolete information has been left out and new information included. The new information includes additional Tesla coil plans, computer printouts, and rotary and air blast spark gaps. Also new is information on Tesla coil metering and additional testing methods.

The 1988 handbook gave a unique step by step design procedure for Tesla coils plus four design graphs to provide the necessary data to start the design process. This design procedure has been retained in the construction guide because it is still the most comprehensive method for designing Tesla coils using manual calculations for designers that do not have a computer. This design method eliminates the laborious and costly trial and error building method normally used by coilers. For a more comprehensive design method the coiler can use the JHCTES computer program.

All of the Tesla coil plans in the book have been designed using the latest Tesla coil engineering technology and are based on actual coils built and tested by the author and other coilers. One of the new plans is for a versatile table top layout that can be used with neon transformers with ratings of 225 to 1,000 watts and spark lengths of 6" to 18". The other new plan is for a high performance coil using a 5 kVA pole type transformer and capable of producing sparks 6 to 8 feet long.

The Tesla coils shown in this book will work as shown provided quality materials and good construction are used. The Tesla coil must also be in tune. This means that the builder will have to test and make adjustments after the coil is built to obtain the maximum spark length.

The Tesla Coil Construction Guide is one of a series of three books by the author on the design and construction of Tesla coils. As it's name implies, the Tesla Coil Construction Guide is a book giving detailed information on the building of Tesla coils producing sparks from 1 inch to 8 feet. The Tesla Coil Design Manual provides information and 26 graphs for designing Tesla coils with sparks ranging from one inch to 400 inches. The Tesla Coil Notebook contains the engineering information for the 46 Tesla coil parameters used in the JHCTES computer program.

All of the books have been written with both the beginner and the advanced Tesla coiler in mind. Only a high school education is needed to understand the mathematics and the engineering in the books.