Our Tesla Coil is meant to be as big and powerful as possible. To accomplish this, we knew we needed a very powerful and impressive secondary coil. 

When we designed our coil, we decided to use a one foot by 6 foot coil which is the best aspect ratio (6:1) for large Tesla Coil secondaries. The first thing we needed to obtain was a one foot by over six foot form to wind our coil on. We purchased a section of PVC pipe to accomplish this. The form ended up being a little over 1 foot outer diameter and between 8 and 9 feet long. The next thing that we needed was wire. Tampa Armature Works donated over a mile of 20awg enameled copper wire to us for our coil. We first coated the PVC with Varnish to help insulate and seal it, then we wound the entire 6000+ feet of wire on the form. 

We wound the coil on December 18th 2010, and the winding party was awesome! We now have an 8+ foot coil form with 6+ feet of actual windings!

Here are some pics:

This is the secondary about one third of the way through completion

Joe Register standing over the coil, winding. 

Lucky, Alex, and Billie providing the spin for the form as the coil was wound. 

Our ridiculous winding rig. We used two casters on a piece of 2x4 on each end of the table to support and spin the form. Unfortunately the casters kept making the PVC form slide off as we spun it because the casters would turn slightly. We made this little arm as a steering wheel so the caster could be directed to keep the PVC form in place.  

Alejandro's job was to steer the PVC pipe and keep it in place while on our winding setup.

Alejandro could fit in the PVC form! So we spun him around a bit.

The finished coil, fully wound, sitting on the table. 

Joe and Coyt standing next to the new coil and the trusty old demo coil.