more progress on "My Last Tesla Coil"

Here is a sight a few of my friends thought they would never see. The primary deck and all of the primary supports are finally complete. It may not look like much, but it's been a great deal of hand-sawing and sanding to get to this point.

This was also the day I I cut the two pieces of the strike ring and installed them. Those bits - including the strike ring insulators - will come off before I varnish the primary supports.


I have a bit of sanding to do on one or two primary supports before I start varnishing, but they are essentially done and they are installed semi-permanently. I refrained from using glue on them in case one gets broken off at some date in the distant future. With only screws holding them on, it will at least be possible to repair them.

I should have the varnishing of the primary supports done in a week, at which point I will start installing the primary copper. I will probably give them either a clear coat (depending how it looks on a test) or a very light stain and urethane, because these supports are hard rock maple and have a beautiful grain.

Oh by the way, the ground connection to the strike ring is already made, at least as far as the primary deck ground connection that exists so far... can you guess where and how?

PS: oh, and yes, that strike ring constitutes a shorted turn, an undesirable thing. I remember thinking a long time ago that I should do something about that when I got around to cutting it to fit and installing it. And now that I've done that, I still can't decide what to do about the shorted turn issue, because everything I've thought of so far seems ugly. I will probably conceal a break within an insulated sleeve concealed inside a slightly oversized mounting tab.