Tesla coil kit

There are lot of Tesla coils kit available on the market; this one is very simple to assemble and works at 12Vdc. The coil is 140mm long and has a diameter of 25mm. For furtherly protect the coils I've applied a Kapton sheet around it before assembling it onto the PCB.

Gas ampoules

Some time ago I've purchased a set of nice glass ampoules filled with pure gases with the aim to experiment with Tesla coils.

Designing a 3D printed ampoule support

Getting the gas vials close to the Tesla coils immediately ionizes the gas inside but I wanted to find a more confortable way to better observe the ionization phenomenon of each gas. This method has the side advantage to have the gas filled ampoule positioned in the same spot

Therefore I've designed a simple 3D printer adapter that holds the gas filled ampoule on the top of the coil.

Note the slot on the side of the 3D printer support that avoids to bend the copper wire lead over the coil body.

And why not?..

After playing around for some time with Tesla coil and gas filled ampoules, I came up with the idea of design and 3D print a support capable to carry up to five ampoules. And here's the result.

Operating the lamp

Once the ampoules are installed in the support, is enought to power up the Tesla coil to cause the gas inside the ampoules to get ionized immediately.