If you're in a rush,then make a small compact circuit,as it doesn't require much components.Mount the MOSFET on a solid heatsink,bend the gate and source out a bit for more space and solder the zener diodes directly on these pins,just like the gate resistor,according to Fumeaux's schematic!Make sure nothing connects to the heatsink expect the MOSFET.Solder short,but enough wires to the potentiometer's legs and solder these to the right points.If you have long enough wire from the base of the secondary coil,solder that directly to the base too,make sure it doesn't touch other metal parts.Use the thickest wire you have as primary for a good magnetic field coupling.

The best way to try out this circuit without blowing up the MOSFET is to use a low voltage source,like a transformer rectified for DC.Add a fluorescent light bulb close to the upper end of the secondary.The first thing to do is rotating the potentiometer and see if the light bulb lights up.If it doesn't,then change the direction of the primary.If it does,find the position where the light bulb is the brightest.After you found the best point you can increase the input voltage.

If the MOSFET blows up you can either have gate overvoltage mainly due to bad zener diodes or wrong connection,or too much drain current.To decrease the drain current you can add a few more turns to the primary coil,but too much turns will decrease the length of the arcs,so use more turns while testing.

For a better design and longer arcs you should read other people's projects here and of course the websites which has most of the knowledge required to build a great Tesla coil,for example:
http://kaizerpowerelectronics.dk/tesla-coils/

https://www.loneoceans.com/labs/

Quote from: Emre on April 27, 2019, 08:35:56 AM

But there are no sparks forming on the tesla coil. What could the problem be?

try connecting the primary coil the other way around