Day One

3 06 2009

What a day.

First off, we have achieved FIRST VACUUM. Connected the small chamber to the pump. So far I’ve got it down to 3e-7 torr and dropping steadily, which gives us a green light for the Fusor:

small_chamber_setup

We had an initial false start which was caused by poor connection on the last conflat to be connected. The last flange is always the hardest because there is more weight on the system. The setup is pretty precarious, and only serves to check first vacuum.

Secondly, Deez successfully fabricated the fusor core:fusor_core

Here is a time-lapse of day one:


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Categories : Fabrication, FUCK YEA!, Fusor, Team, Vacuum

Deuterium Handling System

3 06 2009

Just received the deuterium handling system from Brian McDermott’s disassembled fusor. Thank you Brian!

deuterium_system


Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Deuterium, Fusor

Amateur Nuclear Fusion

30 05 2009

Now we have a book on the topic:

Amateur Nuclear Fusion

Very cool! Thank you Raymond Jimenez.


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Categories : Community, Fusor, Intellectual Property

Grid Fab

2 05 2009

Took a stab at fabricating the grid today. We used Oxyacetylene torch to braze the welding wire together.

ox_acet

I managed to make the rings:rings

Tried putting it together, but I kept breaking previously brazed joints. I think I need to attach heat sinks. grid_attempt


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Categories : Fabrication, Fusor

Grid Update

22 04 2009

I sent in the STL of the grid shown previously to Prometal for a quote. Unfortunately it can’t be made as designed:

We feel that you could expect warping up to about 1/8.”  We also think that we may have some breakage as well.  Unfortunately, this part is not a good fit for our process.

Going to go with TeslaBoys design. He sent me the DWG files for the lasercut inner grid. However, the current design needs some tweeking:

The problem with the design is that the rings intersect at angles so the grooves need to be cut at an angle, but you cannot do that with a (2) axis laser so you have to grind or machine the angles into the grooves.

The improvement is to make the grooves wider based on the angles that the other rings intercept it.  I have not sat down and worked out the geometry, but it is worth it because machining the angles into the narrow grooves was very time consuming and tedious.

I’m also going to attempt to make a cruder version out of welding wire.


Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Fabrication, Fusor

Fusor Grid II

18 04 2009

Here is a standard fusor grid about the size of an apple. chassis1

Tetrahedron.vertices.each_with_index do |v,index|

`#{mged} ‘in torus#{index} tor 0 0 0 #{v.mged} #{40 } #{1}’` #the torus solid

end

`#{mged} ‘r chassis u  #{(0..3).map{|index| “torus#{index}”}.join(” u “)} ‘` #combine the pieces


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Categories : Fusor

Fusor Grid

16 04 2009

I’ve set my sites on a fusor win. The heart of the fusor is it’s grid. It occurred  to me that a polywell shape might work as a shape for a fusor grid. So I started a new branch on github and modified the design to work as a fusor grid. Here is the result, there is no internal structure, just solid metal:

chassis


Comments : 12 Comments »

Categories : Fusor

Glassman Power Supply

15 04 2009

Just spoke Glassman High Voltage about my powersupply:

glassman

This unit was made in 1988 (serviced 1991) for Eastman Kodak for testing CRT monitors. Original list price $2500 ($4,495 in 2009 dollars). I guess this makes sense that it’s useful to me considering Philo Farnsworth invented both the Fusor and Television. Both use high voltage. Due to a softening of demand in the semiconductor industry, Glassman’s plant is unfortunately closed until April 20 2009. My contact there can’t access the full documentation for the unit until he returns to the plant next week.

This unit on it’s own can produce only +10KV @ 1mA using the focus output (ie the focus would normally be attached to the part of the CRT that focuses the electron beam). This would still be useful for charging the mega capacitor, up to 10KV at least. We don’t know if this unit can be run alone. It may require the anode power supply. We’ll find out next week.

The manual appears to be hand typed with actual blueprints for the schematics:

blue_print

He mentioned that the EH Series might be ideal for our purposes.


Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Fusor, Power Supply

Three Pronged Approach

12 04 2009

I’m considering simultaneously building 3 different devices:

  1. fusor
  2. copper coil polywell
  3. superconducting polywell

With this approach we lower the barrier to success. Building a fusor is comparatively easy next to a superconducting polywell. I expect a fight getting down to 10e-08 torr, but I don’t expect trouble getting to 10e-03 torr. While I’m futzing with the vacuum, I can get the hang of operating a fusor. Valuable experience sooner.


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Categories : Fusor, polywell

How-To Guide

12 03 2009

Nothing like finding a how to guide for your crazy project!


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Categories : Fusor

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