Building a Tesla Turbine
by Vince Gingery

Even though the Tesla turbine of 1909 has never really been used commercially because far better turbine technology quickly emerged, the turbine nevertheless has generated a great deal of interest the past few years. I suggested Vince build a small working turbine, and through the pages of a small book, let us look over his shoulder as he did. This is the result: a small, easily built working turbine that will easily turn 5000 rpm.

Here you get Tesla background, a copy of the original patent, a description of the invention by Tesla himself, and most importantly, detailed instructions and how-to so that you, too, can build a working miniature.

Vince admits that this is hardly an innovative design. It's based on ideas in Cairns's book "The Tesla Disk Turbine" (elsewhere in this catalog) and a 1965 how-to article by Burton that appeared in Popular Mechanics magazine.

The turbine is built up from eighteen disks of 20 gauge stainless steel. When these blades spin rapidly, there is always the danger they will explode due to centrifugal force, so strong stainless is used. The 3" diameter blades are cut with aviation snips, drilled in a jig, and assembled into a rotor which is then chucked up in the lathe and turned to be concentric.

The rotor slips into a sheet metal housing and fed air through a simple manifold and hardware store piping. High speed bearings rated to 30,000 rpm where obtained from different internet sources for $2 to $3 each, and you only need two. Driven with 85 psi of compressed air, this little turbine really whistles.

You can build a Tesla turbine. Simply. No hype, just the usual Gingery how-to. This is how it can be done today with minimal tools. If you want to recreate one of Tesla's unusual inventions, this is one to consider. As always with Gingery titles, this definitely worth having. Get one! 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 booklet 48 pages