Once you’ve seen a big home-built Tesla coil in operation, you may decide you’ve got to have one too, even if it’s just a tabletop version to play around with.  There are companies offering detailed plans and DIY kits containing all materials needed, but you quickly come to the realization that their expense may be prohibitive ($30 for a micro version to $1100+ for big performers.)

• See also: Amazing Tesla Coil High Voltage Gallery

As an experienced hacker, you soon think that there has to be a cheaper way.  How about making one from only the junk you can find in trash bins?  One hacker did exactly that, and built a Tesla coil that put out 250,000 volts.  That’s enough to light a nearby unconnected fluorescent tube in your hand, make the torroid at the coil’s top glow eerily in the dark, or shoot mini lightning bolts a few inches to anything grounded.

In its basic form, a Tesla circuit calls for a power supply, a large capacitor, an air core coil, and adjustable spark-gap electrodes.  Here’s the materials list of the junk parts he found for his project:

• Primary power source:  Small neon sign transformer
• Discharge capacitor:  High-voltage television capacitors
• Spark gap: Pair of 1/4-in. bolts and nuts
• Primary coil:  Lamp shade and electric cord from a humidifier
• Secondary coil:  Cardboard tube and microwave fan wire
• Secondary grounding:  Metal spike pounded into the ground
• Torroid:  Two stovetop grease catcher pans
• Chokes:  Two Bic pens and wire from a RC car tossed away

The dumpster diver assembled these parts following the simple electrical schematic shown at his tutorial.   Just connect the parts accordingly.   To properly tune into operation, you may need to read up on the theory of Tesla operation.  That’s beyond the scope of this hack, but clearly from the pics below, the trashy parts indeed make a workable system.

Take note of the cautions if you build your own Tesla out of junk or even brand new parts.  Small Tesla’s can shock you, and big ones can kill.  Be sure to use the outdoors spike ground or better.  Be careful not to poison yourself with leaky PCB’s.  And if you operate your Tesla indoors, electromagnetic fields can mess up your household appliances and electronics.

If you can’t find all the parts you need in the trash, you may be able to find some project supplies in our store.  Again, don’t miss our gallery of tesla coils.   And of course, subscribe to HacknMod for all daily updates.

Tesla coils are used to generate extremely high voltages and are capable of expelling this stored energy as lightning-like bolts of electricity. While they are obviously rather dangerous, they look downright fantastic. We’ve compiled a gallery of our favorites from Tesla Down Under and Tesla Systems.Ă‚  Enjoy!

Let the madness begin:

Combine a high voltage electrode and a motor and you can create an electric force field ring around your laptop. Note that all these photos are real, no photoshopping.Ă‚  Read more about the project.

Super Mario Electricity:

Evil Mad Scientist Style:

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This is probably the closest anyone has come to playing Command and Conquer “Red Alert” in a highly volatile environment, containing the real Soviet Tesla Coil. You too can find out how to reconstruct the set of the popular game and bring it to life with some good preparation. Follow the steps in this comprehensive guide and who knows, maybe you’ll be the next one posting amazing unaltered pictures of high voltage adventures.

Combine a high voltage electrode and a motor and you can create an electric force field around your laptop. Note that all these photos are real, no photoshop. The pictures are all single shots and effects are produced with long exposure.

The photos above show the ZVS flyback supply driving a 4 stage CW multiplier. It is capable of 5 inch sparks but is shown here with half of that. These photos display how the rotating setup swings the sparks in a ring around the laptop, while maintaining a safe distance from my face.

• Why stop at a laptop, why not guard your entire car?

• Or use Electric Beams of Death to guard your home.

Follow this sequence to recreate the pictures. Read more about the project.

1. The rotating electrodes are turned on. The shot is done in darkness.
2. Trigger the 10 second camera exposure using a remote control. The indirect flash goes off and this provides a natural color background to give normal skin tones.
3. The orange filter is put in place (colored acrylic held in front of the
   lens). Everything from now on will be orange ie sparks and computer screen,
   complete with orange shadows and reflections.
4. Sparks are turned on and remain on for the duration of the 10 second
   exposure during just over a full rotation of the electrodes.. The sparks, now
   orange, will be added to the exposure.