CAUTION: Tesla coils use and produce high voltage electricity. Tesla coils can be very dangerous, even lethal! You can easily electrocute yourself with one of these machines. You assume all risk and liability for your creation. Make sure you know how to proceed safely before you start! An excellent safety document to read are http://www.pupman.com/safety.htm.

Disclaimer: The author of this document is an amateur, not a professional. The information provided in this document should be interpreted with this distinction clearly in mind. The author hereby disclaim any liability for injury to persons or property that may result due to the construction and use of Tesla coils and other high voltage apparatus. This document is for informational purposes only, and makes no claims to its completeness or accuracy. While some of the dangers associated with the construction and the use of Tesla coils have been pointed out in this document, other potential hazards may exist. Tesla coils are inherently very dangerous devices and should only be constructed and operated by individuals familiar enough with these dangers!

That being said.....
These are some pics of my journey into TC building.

Nikola Tesla

A shot of my first TC, a 2.5" secondary. This is as it looked prior to burning up.

The specifications prior to it's death:
Tank Circuit
two 15/60 NSTs, 20nf MMC and 7 segment RQ/TCBOR spark gap. The night it died we were using a 12/300+ NST and 30nf of MMC capacitor, running at ~4kVA.

Primary
9 turns of 4AWG solid wire. I added about 5 more turns of 12AWG solid to the inside to eliminate the need for an off-axis inductor

Secondary
Approx. 1200 turns of 32AWG magnet wire around a 2.5" cardboard tube. Winding length is 12" and total length of the coilform is about 18". Many coats of polyurethane.
Toroid from 4" dryer duct approx. 15.5" overall diameter.

Ever see a 2.5" coil throw almost 4' arcs? Pics from 9/10/2001 while running approx. 4kVA

My new 2.5" coil. I had to build another one after how well the first one worked.

My 4 inch coil.

My 9 inch coil. The 9" coil is taking a while due to limited funding.

Capacitors
Spark Gaps
Transformers
Controller
Ground

Equipment For Sale

A 12" coil I had the pleasure of building
Got Flames?
Other pics from the garage
Some pics from inside a homemade Faraday cage from 7/23/2001
Some pics from running Aron and Justin's coil 8/03/2001
Ten Commandments of Electronic Safety

A list of acronyms used by Tesla Coilers (we have our own "lingo")
Tesla Coils 4 Christ Using Tesla Coils for God's glory
Hot-streamer.comBart's mirror of Hot-streamer.com
And of course, the TCML at pupman
Tesla Coil Builders of Fort Worth
Nikola Tesla: Forgotten American Scientist
Bart Anderson's site - Home of JavaTC
Paul Nylander's Site
John Freau's site

Great Beginners Sites:
A copy of Matt Behrend's formula page
Steve Bell's site

Excellent More Advanced Site:
Richie Burnett's Site

Plans, books and calculator software:
Bart Anderson