I Built a Lightning Machine... Spark Gap Tesla Coil Build Guide

Hey everyone,
Over a year ago I finished this tesla coil... There was so much footage and I was overwhelmed so I never edited it. But overwhelmed I am no longer because I finally present to you my ultimate guide on how to design your very own backyard-illuminating, jaw-dropping, spark gap tesla coil. And I have never been prouder. As I said, I wouldn't have been able to do this without the inspiration from these three channels and websites:
LabCoatz: / labcoatz_science
styropyro: / styropyro
DiodeGoneWild: / diodegonewild
DeepFriedNeon - Tesla Coils - deepfriedneon.c...
JavaTC - Tesla Coil Simulator: www.classictesl...
Richie Burnett - Tesla Coil Operation - www.richieburne...
HVTesla.com - www.hvtesla.com...
Music credit:
Pina Colada - (unknown)
Her's - What Once Was
Andrew Applepie - Almost Winter
Andrew Applepie - Keep On Trying
Sista Prod - Topic: Eyes Blue Like The Atlantic (feat. Subvrbs)
Robbie Harrison: Post Malone and Swae Lee - Sunflower (Official Instrumental)
Beat Central: Kendrick Lamar, SZA - All The Stars - Beat/Instrumental
Beach Bunny - Oxygen
Share this video with your friends!!

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Nice work man, this is definitely a quality tutorial! Makes me want to redo mine...

[@BackMacSci]

Thanks, man! Looking forward to seeing your sgtc upgrades!

[@griddymaster445]

Common Tate W

[@xiinze]

I love both of your vids anyways it helps me learn a lot, thanks guys

[@RAVI171175]

Makes me want to go back to the old days when I did mine. For all beginners , the spark gap Tesla coil is one of the best way to go through as it makes your brain works as you simply want to get the best possible output sparks. That's great dear as you did an excellent job. Keep it up.

[@BackMacSci]

Wow, thank you! Yes, I look back on this tesla coil with such fond memories!

[@ToolsWTools]

I'm currently building a Tesla coil right now. I've ordered the magnet wire for the secondary, I have my power supply and capacitors. The first 4 minutes of this video answered all the questions I had. Thanks a ton!

[@Commercial_Investments]

What’s the estimated cost for this set up?

[@danleemann]

17:20 man i wish my family reacted like that. I built my little drsstc after playing with flybacks for a while and got a "thats cool". It probably didnt help that i made musical flybacks and I was showing them off every step of the way lol...

[@scottmcgowan5953]

This is a great video. Failure and success with your dad and your dog thrown in too. Just fantastic. I hope to build my own

[@BackMacSci]

Thanks Scott. I’m glad you appreciated the video in it’s entirety!

[@scottgreg2967]

Holy cr*p, you've had this channel since you were a kid, 7 years ago! Well done keeping it going. I see lots of great videos from the past that I'll need to watch.

[@BackMacSci]

Yeah, watch them all! I'm proud of them all, even if the earlier ones were a lot sillier.

[@iBlaze69]

Wow, dont know how this has only 10k views, i would be expecting 1M+ for a video this interesting

[@zinckensteel]

Oh, man, you're taking me right back to highschool. Except I never dared to use MOTs, just stuck to NSTs. I even built a synchronous rotary gap!

[@sodiumvapor13]

Awesome build! And good job showing how you did each step, including the fails. Not enough people show that!

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it!

[@paulkeenanmusic]

fantastic video! Thank you for a no nonsense approach to building a PROPER tesla coil. Inspirational!

[@EA-tc6kb]

😂I only got circuits in college. The information and references, even experiences during R&D, awesome video. Copper tubing requires a lower temp, most likely Butane, and maybe plumbers solder.

[@griddymaster445]

100% in my top 3 SGTC build vids, was a great inspiration for my own build. Great job man!😊

[@bogibogatinovoffical]

The video is very helpful! But can you show the electric system that powers the coil?

[@KDewees91]

0:25 you nailed it man. Anything could be done when you put your mind to it

[@BackMacSci]

You proved that! Your coiling achievements are awesome!

[@anta777-k6x]

This is cool, can you provide all the parts and circuits?

[@AnanyaChadha]

this is rly cool! love the calculations & details. also u touching it at the end is WILD omg

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you!!

[@juntendo6104]

I remember struggling in physics electricty back in highschool and I was doing electronics as a hobby long before. I swear some questions are misleading, structured poorly and no real life practical use.

[@firefox1136]

That is amazing! You really got a great output there also very nice editing! I gotta save this in my tesla coil playlist:D

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you! I'm honored to be on your playlist.

[@mallardtheduck406]

I want to build a smaller SGTC, using a 2-4kv neon transformer as a starting point. I live in an apartment and it can't be too powerful. I know they are expensive but I love spun aluminum toroid, which are not cheap. When in doubt, consult styropyro....Super Smart, but Super Cool Dude!!!

[@BackMacSci]

Make the desktop tesla coil i made. Much more compact and quieter, perfect for your apartment

[@jodroboxes]

Well done! I got my primary of about 9 turns looking pretty good. I used 6 mounts instead of 4 and the had smaller holes under the big half holes so you can zip tie them as you go. It goes much better starting on the outside and working your way in, you really have to massage the smaller turns in carefully. I'm halfway through my first scratch built coil, finally got the parts for building a terry filter to protect my absolutely badass 10kv 100ma NST! :D

[@BackMacSci]

Sheeeesh that IS a monster NST

[@jodroboxes]

@@BackMacSci It was the biggest one they had lol

[@nickpolson6005]

Yeah Buddy, Excellent work dude. The information you included took me a long time to learn... But it really got me hooked on Tesla and his amazing story as well as his unbelievable body of work. Your video production is top notch, with the graphics that I've never seen before. You did an excellent job,and should truly be proud. I would be... I started building the thing before I ever knew how it was supposed to work. Which looking back on it now, I would have not finished learning what is needed to learn without the non-working coil sitting there taunting me, so all part of the process for me. And truthfully, the learning part simply won't end. Tesla coils really drove me to learn like school never did. I've become addicted to learning new things... I really went at electronics full force all on my own, with no prior knowledge at all. Nothing but fear of electricity. What you said at the beginning is true, I can attest to that. I devoted myself for years to understanding Electromagnetics. And even still am passionate to understand what is seemingly not understandable. Like Magnets and Elementary charge, To the Ether concept and Eric Dollard's masterful work. Wanting to prove Tesla right and within my limited means, prove to myself that his wireless power transmission is totally doable. That the telluric currents are the way our radios work as he said they are. And so many more unbelievable things. As I see it Nikola Tesla was the greatest mind to ever have walked the earth. Greatest scientist hands down. What a shamefully tragic loss for all of us humans. This evil world and its money tried to snuff him out completely, but his reach was too extensive Everyone alive should thank him sincerely, yet barely anyone knows who he is. Without his unrivaled imagination and foresight this world would be ruled by barbarians for another 2-4000 years. If any person reads this and has never looked into Nikola Tesla, I highly recommend it. Hopefully people can learn to think again, to think originally. You sir are proof that his legend remains intact. Even though he himself scoffed when the "Tesla Coil" was how people knew of him. He was quite a personality. People nowadays have no balls like he had balls. To attempt what every single person believed utterly impossible, that's what I'm talking about. As you said if you immerse yourself into something and neglect all of the other things, anything is possible. Again sir, Great work. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you so much, Nick. I put my everything into this video, so I'm glad you liked it. Tesla was a genius, that's right! And this project taught me I am the only person holding me back!

[@solarsynapse]

Excellent detail explaining the dimensions and math!

[@not8994]

Would you mind explaining how your primary tap works?

[@caseycourtney6425]

can you do a vid on how to wire the transformers together? Theres zero videos on how to do this for some reason and no one agrees on whether to wind them in parallel or series...

[@MapSpawn]

Do you think an ionic drive could work if it was a stabilized plasma torus, all you do is create a tiny delta in the energy distribution to make the torus rotate, which could propel a craft in space because there is the corona energy loss that can be utilized.

[@MrLoddyDoddy]

I found out about this channel from your parents. Great job

[@LucasWills]

Just discovered this channel and I love it haha Keep it up 👍

[@sagarshayar0096]

Dude......which type of transform you have used?......how many capacitor had been used and there values of each capacitor.....can u explain the lower portion?

[@hemantaku8339]

You are great.....

[@TBrady]

Good deal. One thing I saw that you could have changed. The copper comes off the spool already bent. You were taking it off the spool then bending it the opposite direction. If you would have worked with the bend that was already there, you would have had alot easier time.

[@BackMacSci]

Thanks. I agree.

[@dannybell926]

Need to show how to build the electrical component end also...

[@ramrodgarage2005]

Man so cool I want to build one

[@BackMacSci]

Be careful and do lots of research!

[@samykamkar]

Sweet!

[@jefferyswan4401]

Dude... AWESOME!!!!

[@WaffleStaffel]

I wonder if filling the tubing with sand or ice would assist in making smoother bends. I once wound a secondary that size by hand. The Popular Electronics magazine suggested using a lathe, but my bank account declined the suggestion. I hope you don't get tired of the compliment, because your video production is top quality. Great music selections.

[@BackMacSci]

Thanks Waffle :) and yeah, I've heard of the sand technique for winding a primary but I opted not to do it because it sounded like a messy process that not a lot of people use. I'm so glad you like the vid, I've been waiting for a comment from you!

[@WaffleStaffel]

@@BackMacSci Ah, well, priorities. You can get wrapped up in perfection and never end up finishing the project. It's better to get it done. _(I tend to get lost in the weeds and never end up finishing anything.)_ I saw the comment you left about a preview but there were no link, but then I saw you got this video up. Those are great pics at the end. You really killed this one. You ought to be proud, you did a fantastic job!

[@BackMacSci]

@@WaffleStaffel Thanks! Yeah I am! Watching this video always makes me feel great

[@WaffleStaffel]

@@BackMacSci I just saw your sun video. I have a recommendation, it's a paper called "The Hole at the Center of the Sun". I can't mention the author, but he has literally hundreds of fascinating scientific papers.

[@BackMacSci]

@@WaffleStaffel Thanks! I'm curious about why he chose that title

[@wyattteckemeyer9748]

Could i please get a better explanation of how your mot power supply unit is wired?

[@paraplu_2839]

where do you get your power from? do you just plug it in a wall socket?

[@ethansprojects7399]

Thank you this has been very helpful! Definitely subbing.

[@judy1879]

Great job! That looks awesome 👍

[@BackMacSci]

Thanks Judy!

[@tiagotiagot]

I imagine it might have been easier to make the primary less squiggly if you had a ton of little spacers with just 2 holes each, or even just half-holes, sorta like a H with thicker center bar and rounded upper and lower openings, and you added them along evenly spaced along the length as you wound it up.

[@BackMacSci]

I dont understand but thanks for the suggestion

[@tiagotiagot]

@@BackMacSci I mean instead of just having that fixed jig, also add spacers along the length of the spiral to keep each turn aligned with the previous.

[@BackMacSci]

@@tiagotiagot I see now, yeah that would work.

[@leok3429]

How many feet of copper tubing did you used

[@styrishrodrigues]

Awesome.. Loved it

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you!! Subscribe for more! :)

[@ayahsadam9817]

This is a great content and I liket💖👍

[@mistertheguy3073]

Holy fuck that picture is sick

[@middleway1885]

Well played! Hilarious and yummy little one... gives lots of hugs and kisses... Thanks for being adventurous and attaining to greater things! Cheers!

[@chachouamohamed8557]

Good job bro . ..i have an idea awesome .. 😊😊😊

[@ancientlink0]

How much money did it cost you?

[@juntendo6104]

Big congrats! Looks very similar to my SGTC construction. The only difference is that I couldn't afford CDF caps so I used wima caps which worked quite decent. The metal bolt to support secondary looks questionable as arcing and significant change in secondary inductance can occur.

[@juntendo6104]

I think the ground strike is limiting the arc length. Try attaching breakout rod so that there is longer distance. Tuning might be required tho

[@BackMacSci]

@@juntendo6104 ooh ok! i'll try that!

[@BackMacSci]

Do you mean arcing from secondary winding to the metal bolt? I haven't had that issue yet. Maybe I'll experiment more with tuning as well.

[@Dont_know_dont_care0]

Does it also work for phone charger?

[@v1nceirl605]

Yeah, guess I’m making a slayer exciter again 😅

[@jasonclements4607]

use brazing rods no flux for copper. faster than flux and soft solder

[@flomojo2u]

Also if you're soldering copper and it goes dark/black colored it's WAY too hot and you need to buff off all the oxidation and start over. Having a quality flux is really important too, you should go slow and spread the heat around to avoid burning away the flux. You should be able to feed the solder in and have it wick up into the gaps, away from the direct flame. This is also very useful if you ever do any plumbing work, since it's really difficult to get the metal hot enough to braze when there's so much mass pulling away the heat from the join. Soldering takes place at a much lower temperature.

[@MUSTAF4]

Great job 👏

[@JGP1970]

Excellent

[@__-ul7cc]

Does this lightning machine sound loud enough to scare dogs when they are constantly barking?

[@BackMacSci]

Yes!

[@horsebackvivid3321]

Nice

[@mistertheguy3073]

Wow nice neon sign :))

[@davewenzel8855]

use it as a speaker^^

[@brianbloom1799]

Hi I,m just starting to build a Tesla Coil, On the Capacitors, Will a Couple door knob capacitor,s ratings of 20,000 volts and Rca 5642 Half-wave Rectifier vacuum tube work also,for Dc voltage. Thanks for any Help

[@BackMacSci]

Hi! Not sure about the tube but the caps will be fine. Research more about the specs of the tube.

[@brianbloom1799]

@@BackMacSci Thanks for your Help

[@thomasalvarez2089]

Badass

[@TechTed1]

Great Channel 👍

[@PORTEnSious]

How do you build the spark gap u missed a few steps ?

[@BackMacSci]

You cut some wood as a base, cut some copper pipe about 4-6” long, drill holes through the pipe at either end, hammer nails through the holes and into the wooden base. Space the pipes evenly apart and set the total spacing depending on the peak voltage reached by your power supply. Watch diodegonewild’s video for more info! 🙌

[@alystair]

Would it be safe to assume one wouldn't 'feel' anything when touching it with a fully grounded glove?

[@BackMacSci]

I felt the glove vibrate a little!

[@ProtoHadron]

8:05 what is this music

[@truongthanhnguyenphuc9437]

Can I use a microwave condenser instead of this capacitor system?

[@BackMacSci]

you cant use microwave capacitors because they will heat up and break due to the high frequency of the tesla coil

[@truongthanhnguyenphuc9437]

@@BackMacSci So what if I only use 1 transformer?

[@brendanliegey9258]

How did u build or where did u get your propylene capacitor bank? And how many capacitors did you get in total?

[@BackMacSci]

I got 30 capacitors from digikey.com

[@GTS00000]

How can I find this Tesla coil builder discord channel?

[@BackMacSci]

Go to a LabCoatz video and look in the description

[@MrMartinswan]

Hi I'm building one next month I have a 60 cm x11 cm coil with a 40 tor would you be willing to show the transformer wiring I'm use (mot) transformer s and would like to ask you a few questions

[@BackMacSci]

Sure, I can help. Email your questions to [e-mail] !

[@MrMartinswan]

Will do soon still waiting for coil plus other stuff to come have 2 mots exactly the same ones still on its way the same as coil and other stuff think it's be about one month till it's all here ! Thank you I'll be in touch as soon as it comes thank you buddy !

[@BackMacSci]

Yeah reach out to me if you want help! I can't wait to see it finished, dude!

[@alexcaleal9025]

Hello!!! With 3 MOT... What is the power consumption from the mains? I would like to use 3 MOT like you, but I only have 3kW available in my house. Thanks a lot !!!

[@BackMacSci]

I have not checked the power consumption before but I know that I pull 12 amps continuously and the MOTS are powered by 120v mains. maybe the 120V*12A then?

[@alexcaleal9025]

@@BackMacSci Totally agree. Makes sense, but I live in an area with 230V input. I will do some testing, thanks for your reply!!

[@arkhilious]

See, when I did this, my parents banned me from doing electronics because they were scared of things they didn't understand. And they weren't willing to learn.

[@BackMacSci]

Ah, sorry. That could have happened to me to if I wasn't so confident in wanting to do it and I explained every way I planned on keeping myself safe. I got lucky i guess.

[@postcardlifestyle]

Can i buy one???

[@BackMacSci]

No, sorry, I only made one! You can buy cheaper, safer ones on amazon for $200 though!

[@tylergoodwin3546]

I dont understand how Telsa figured this out haha

[@kdkinen]

Amazing work but Those tight wraps at the end will screw up everything. Man I'm a dick

[@TEAMGAMING12......P]

Cost of this ?

[@griddymaster445]

Idk about Tate but I one based if of this, using a rotary spark gap. If you try your best to be thrifty, buying just the amount of stuff you need and search multiple places for best prices, you can build it for around $500

[@BackMacSci]

Mine was about $700 for everything i believe. But cheaper capacitors could have been used.

[@griddymaster445]

Oh yeah, I used 24 of these capacitors, saved around 60 bucks. I put made rows of 8 capacitors and put three rows in parallel. Job Beeftink, Labcoatz, Backmacsci, and styropyro all have great sgtc build videos.

[@NerdlabsSci]

this is literally an exact copy of my first ever tesla coil lmao

[@BackMacSci]

Omg that's crazy! Were you inspired by styropyro too?

[@NerdlabsSci]

@@BackMacSci i was inspired by job beeftink's dual mot tesla coil kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHzbZHWmbbyMqM0 although my v2 rotary spark gap was a direct ripoff of styropyro's design

[@starbirthcalamity]

Use it backwards.

[@roylarsen7417]

copy everything from styro make video !!

[@richardandrews573]

Don't build it, but you'll get rich for showing the world you doing it.

[@TechTed1]

They did that for political isues they did to me many times is all about politics

[@Kailxz]

how do you see the secondary inductance in java TC? i cant find it

[@Borochov808]

Are you from hawaii?

[@BackMacSci]

Yes I am!

[@alllove1754]

Kudos on your project here. Kinda made me want to do something original. I wonder if there is a way to make ball lightning with that..(?)