HERE ARE BASIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR BUILDING A "GENERIC" TESLA COIL. THEY ARE
FOR INFORMATION ONLY, SINCE THE CONSTRUCTION OF SUCH A COIL REQUIRES
KNOWLEDGE OF HIGH VOLTAGE TECHNIQUE AND SAFETY PROCEDURES.  THE
PRIMARY-SIDE SUPPLY OF ANY TESLA COIL IS A SHOCK HAZARD, AND THE SUPPLY
FOR ANY BUT THE SMALLEST COIL CAN CAUSE ELECTROCUTION.  THE COIL DESCRIBED
BELOW USES DIRECT CONNECTION TO AN AC POWER OUTLET, AND IS VERY DANGEROUS
IF PROPER SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT FOLLOWED.  IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO
WORK WITH 120V AND HIGH VOLTAGE SAFELY, THEN DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BUILD 
THIS TESLA COIL

TAKEN FROM THE INTERNATIONAL TESLA SOCIETY DISCUSSION LIST

Date: Fri, 2 Jun 1995 15:49:22 -0600
From: SE Crawshaw <se-craws@uwe.ac.uk>
Reply to: usa-tesla@usa.net
Subject: small tesla coil psu

Ok, here's a design for a small tesla coil HV generator (the first stage).
I built this when I was an apprentice at UKAEA winfrith. It is originally
derived from a design in Practical Mechanics 1963. 

Use a robust 12v Car ignition coil, usually rated at about 50W. This
design uses mains electricity 240V UK. Get from RS or any component
supplier, a solid state phase angle switching circuit. I don't know the
stock No. but they are basically a light dimming circuit using a triac
and an inductor within a single 3 pin chip. They come in a variety of
current ratings, I used 6A which is probably way over the top, but better
safe than sorry. You need to get a 1Meg variable resistor to vary the
phase angle. So connect up the phase angle device, with 1 meg resistor
and place a 3 microdfarad cap in series with the output (use >250 volts
rated cap). Now connect to + and - terminals on the coil. You should be
able to run the spark gap directly from the HV terminal of the coil. I
have got sparks about 30mm (approx 30KV) from this arrangement. **BE
CAREFUL** I have seen a 15 stone man thrown across a room while foolishly
trying to see if the spark was hot enough to melt solder! You can use this
to drive a tesla coil.


I use a 500pF cap at 30KV rating and a flat spiral primary with about 26
turns. Secondary is about 1200 turns on a 300mm long form, diameter 2".
Output from this is about 70Kv. 

 A good trick to do with a tesla coil is to get a sheet of plastic or
wood, about 2" x 3" and either paint it in luminous paint(Phosphorescent)
or get luminous powder and mix with clear silicone sealant (polysiloxane)
and spread it like butter over the p lastic or wood substrate. BEFORE the
paint or sealant dries, get copper or metal filings and sprinkle evenly
and sparsely over the surface of the drying paint / sealant. Press gently
to ensure secure fixing of the filings. Allow to dry (24 hrs). Then fix
the bottom of the wood to the HV tesla terminal. The sparks now track for
up to 6 times the distance of tracking in dry air - and also where the
sparks track ove the surface, they leave an image of a ghost spark that
remains visible for a few seconds.  This looks fantastic in the dark and
increases the apparent power of a small tesla coil. I am currently
building a large tesla coil, using a 1KW 26KV transformer as the driving
stage. I welcome any tips from people who have the arcane knowledge and 
experience in these things.

Hold tight cyberpunk technopagans