Tesla Coil Uses Vacuum Tube

Jul 18, 2023

What do you do when you find a 5 kW transmitting tube in your local electronics store? If you are [TannerTech], you build a vacuum tube tesla coil. This isn't the usual little wimpy coil, but a big bad boy that would look at home in an old horror movie.

The first power up was a bit anticlimactic, although it was working, it wasn't very spectacular other than the tube glowing brightly. A few adjustments and some mineral oil did the trick.

Honestly, the build details are a little sparse, but if you have any business building a coil this big it should be enough for you. Besides, you aren't likely to have exactly the same components he uses anyway, so you are going to have to improvise. No offense, but this probably shouldn't be your first high voltage project.

This isn't the first vacuum tube coil design we’ve seen. In fact, a recent one had a clever inrush limiter circuit that might work with this one, too. Tubes are good at handling lots of power like this without being very hard to use and there is just something about the filament glow that we always enjoy.

If you want to start smaller, try using a bug zapper. If you are too lazy to wind your own coils, there's always some automated help.