Everything here came off scrap, eBay, or a skip behind a hospital (don't). Total spend: about £600, and most of that was the copper. The expensive part isn't on this list, because the expensive part is the frequency, and the frequency is free.
PARTS LIST (the easy bit)
- ~400 yards 12-gauge enamelled copper wire (more is fine, less is a hospital trip)
- 1 × microwave oven transformer (gut it, you want the iron and the HV)
- 1 × vacuum pump (fridge compressor works, mine's off a 1987 Hotpoint)
- 1 × thick glass jar / bell jar for the chamber
- 2 × signal generators / oscillators (the FANCY ones with the knobs — see FIG.2 on the build page)
- steel angle, a MIG welder, JB Weld, and a LOT of fuses
- nylon bolts, washers and shims (NOT metal — I cannot stress this enough)
- 1 × old laptop you don't love (for the software — see STEP 7)
- clear lacquer, a rubber gasket, soapy water
- tinfoil (obviously)
TOOLS
- steel rule & a good eye (for the coil alignment, STEP 3)
- a little oscilloscope (a cheap green one is plenty)
- multimeter, fire blanket, the sense to stand to the side
- a loved one who knows where you are
WHERE NOT TO CHEAP OUT: the copper (thin wire cooks), the nylon (metal shorts the gap), and the fuses (you will use a lot of fuses, and the day you run out is the day you wish you hadn't). Everything else, scrounge.
FIG.1 (again) :: this is what £600 and nine years looks like. worth it.