Category: Projects

  • Tesla Magnifying Transmitter Tuning

    Tesla Magnifying Transmitter Tuning

    After a week of solid testing, and a hundred feet of wasted/cut coax, I’m finally honing in on a good procedure for building+tuning a Tesla Magnifying Transmitter.😙 Short version: Wind your secondary and extra coil to about 1.5x your target frequency.Measure each coil separately with a VNA or function generator and scope/meter until you have…

  • 2022 1/4hp Steam Engine Build

    2022 1/4hp Steam Engine Build

    The following is basically a big montage of photos taken during the build process for a 1/4hp steam engine casting kit that I got for Xmas Dec2021. The whole process took about 100 man-hours, which is about 1/2 the time as the first one I had made last year. Lessons-learned go a long way.😁

  • Shop Notes – Building a new Tesla Coil for upcoming telluric experiments.

    Shop Notes – Building a new Tesla Coil for upcoming telluric experiments.

    In prep for the upcoming through-the-ground communications experiments this month, I spent the last couple days fabricating a large Tesla Coil secondary out of UHMW polyethylene. Target frequency is just above the 160m HAM radio band, so about 2-2.4mc Using RG316 coax cable since it is silver coated and has a quite large surface area.…

  • AT5k Antenna Tuner modding

    AT5k Antenna Tuner modding

    On the advice of Adrian Marsh, I modded my 3kw antenna tuner. Basically I needed a way to bypass all of the tuning elements on one of the outputs to make it easier to tune Tesla Coils with it. By adding a vacuum relay I am able to use one of the pushbuttons on the…

  • It is finished (‘Borehole to Hell’ project)

    It is finished (‘Borehole to Hell’ project)

    It took a few weeks, but the project is finally done. Total depth: 27ft, with 14ft beneath the water table. The last few feet were the worst (aren’t they always), with the last 4ft being painstaking hammered with a ground-rod driver and sledgehammer. Overall a good learning experience though, and now I know how I…