You'll probably get it working on the first try.

Use a 10ohm resistor to start with, easier to get it running on that. Not as efficient, but just get it to work.

1 X 10ohm resistor
1 X 1N914 diode
1 X MPS8099 transistor or RCA3055 or 2N3055 either of those will work fine

Get enough wire of #23 and #26 or closest you can find for those. Enamel coated magnet wire..enough to wind about 600 turns on the coil to the dimensions in those schematics. Make sure to wind it so that when you put + top the top of the coil and - at the bottom that the magnetic field on the coil is NORTH at the TOP. Wind both of those wires together at the SAME time around the spool.

The core for the coil can be a soild piece of iron or use a bunch of smaller pieces of welding rod cut to lenght and bundled together.

The transistor has a collector, emitter and base. The collector is the input, the emitter it the output. With these NPN transistors, there is no connection through the transistor from collector to emitter. The faucet is shut off basically. To make the connection, it requires a bit of current at the base...that is what the trigger wire is for. That turns it on and when the power is no longer at the base, the transistor shuts off. It is just an off and on switch triggered by the base.

When you buy the transistor, the package will give you a diagram or you can find it online which lead is what. BCE are the 3 you need to know. Just connect the coil wires, diode and resistor to each other like in the diagrams John drew.

The resistor doesn't matter which way you put it. The diode, the little black stripe needs to be towards the base of the transistor.

Make sure the wheel spins really, really easily. One little spin and it just keeps going. You can make it like mine where the wheel spins around the shaft or you can make it fixed to the shaft so the shaft spins in some bearings in the frame uprights.

You can use regular ceramic magnets on the rotor. Just make sure North is facing out on all 4 magnets so that south are all facing towards the axle.

The little black sealed gel cell batts are good ones to play with for starters. Use 12 volt ones.

When it is all hooked up, you give a slight little spin on the wheel and it will just start speeding up as fast as it can go.

When you get it running with these parts (use the 10ohm resistor), then you can switch out the resistor to something like a 680ohm to see if it will run on that. You basically want as much resistance as possible while still letting enough get through to trigger the transistor. That is the idea anyway.

There are a LOT of people around the world who have build these Bedini machines so you won't have a problem getting people to help you out.