Comments on: Polywell Assembly Overhaul

By: Ben Hynes

Ben Hynes — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 21:13:13 +0000

Excellent! I love watching the progress. Fusion is the future.

By: Mark Suppes

Mark Suppes — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 01:12:05 +0000

Hey Vidya, Sorry to disappoint. I’m disappointed with the project myself sometimes.

Over the years this project has progressed in fits and starts. At the moment I’m busy making a living.

But one thing this project requires is patience. So exhale that breath you are holding and enjoy the show!

By: Vidya Wasi

Vidya Wasi — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 00:06:10 +0000

Based on the talk “Mark Suppes: Full talk from Wired 2012″ I got the impression you updated more often. Checking github and this blog made me disappointed.

I’m an impatient guy so i must ask:
How is it going ?
Is the project stalling ?

To a guy that have not read about fusion or the whole blog it looks like you are repeating the same experiment over and over. Rebuilding and improving the toys as you go on. Yet no new results as in progress forward to the goal.

What i’m wondering is:
A: When will you be able to power up a light-bulb with this thing ?
I’m guessing you have learned enough to make some sort of prediction “guestimate”.
B: How will you do that ?
Fission use steam with turbines. Will this use that too ?

By: Jesse

Jesse — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 22:47:42 +0000

Oops, double post. Please delete the one with my email in the name form. *here come the spambots

By: sales@marcusuav.com

sales@marcusuav.com — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 22:15:55 +0000

Have you checked out the
ULTEM* 9085

From what I understand it’s high heat tolerant and vacuum friendly. Here’s the datasheet.
http://www.fortus.com/~/Media/Fortus/Files/PDFs/MS-ULTEM9085-FORTUS.aspx

I doubt you’re going to have problems with the print quality with this material on a Stratasys 900mc for example.

Stratasys is working with another company to combine 3d printed electronics. So you maybe you could combine the two and have your conductive shell.

By: dbauer7890

dbauer7890 — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:37:46 +0000

Yeah, we have. Due to the problems you mention, getting this right is going to be a real challenge. To try to mitigate such problems, we’ve had some test pieces printed. Simple shapes (holes, cylinders, cubes) of various sizes which will help us get a handle on the relationship between the digital design and the physical product. They should be in the mail, and I’ll post pics when they come.

By: dbauer7890

dbauer7890 — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:32:08 +0000

We thought about it, but because ceramic is such a finicky material, we decided that an ABS prototype wouldn’t have enough relevance to the ceramic version to really be helpful.

By: dbauer7890

dbauer7890 — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:26:28 +0000

Electroplating the casings is an interesting idea. I wonder if there might be a glaze conductive enough to serve that purpose. It seems unlikely because glazes are usually mostly glass, but I’ll look into it.

By: dbauer7890

dbauer7890 — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:24:04 +0000

That’s probably true. Many people have suggested using the magrid, and it’s definitely something we’re looking into. Right now, we’re trying to reproduce the Sydney Experiment, which used a separate anode for electron acceleration and no magrid. This approach circumvents the problem of insulation the magrid shells from the coils

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 23:16:11 +0000

Have you printed any ceramics with Shapeways? I have. If you have not, I think you might be disappointed. The dimensions are not likely to be as precise as you hope for. A, worse problem will be that your 3D model will be slathered with thick and sloppily applied glaze.