Make magazine just had a link/article/video for a weekend project that really simplified it to point of being fool-proof. I made 4 Sunday. Really only takes about 15 minutes. There is a site that sells a kit, but for $10...

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/joulethief
This link show you how simple the coil is to make, has the schematic, and parts list.

Pretty much any ferrite toroid will work, bell wire, phone wire, cat5, enamel will work. Most any NPN general purpose transistor 2n3904, 2n2222, or similar.

PM Krumlink, he'll walk you through it. He made an Instructable on how to stuff it in a TicTac box. Search this forum, you should find his link from last week. Might not be to late to vote for his impressive accomplishment ...