Tesla Gun jumps out of graphic novel and into reality
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The sand-cast aluminum main body housing, based on a Nerf gun
Detailing of the sand-cast aluminum housing
Making sure everything fits ahead of assembly
The bank of capacitors in their own custom housing
Ceramic tungsten high voltage switch sitting on top of a CPU fan, which is said to draw hot ions out of the switch to help create bigger, rapid lightning bolts
Tesla Gun cross section showing the coils and the internal components
The Tesla Gun's primary and secondary coil, topped by a doughnut-shaped aluminum toroid
Close up of the primary and secondary coils
Close up of the flyback transformer
That cathode certainly gives off a fair amount of heat
Close up of the termination for the secondary coil
A look inside the housing showing the layout of the components
Assembled and ready for action - a battery-powered ZVS driver circuit drives a flyback transformer that ups the original 18V to somewhere around the 20,000V mark
The spark gap Tesla coil upon which the Tesla Gun is based awaits testing
Test run of the spark gap Tesla coil
When a spike is added to the top of the toroid, the sparks fly straight out at anything up to two feet
Rob Flickenger has created a fully functional, battery-operated Tesla Gun of the kind used by Nikola Tesla himself in a graphic novel about the pioneers of power
Article Summary
If you listen to your elders, electricity is a dangerous, often fatal, medium that shouldn't be toyed with. If, like Rob Flickenger, you decide to completely ignore such sage counsel, then electricity is awesome and a whole bunch of fun – especially if you build yourself a working battery-powered Tesla Gun that handles some 20,000-volts and 2,000 amps of current and shoots out bolts of lightning!
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