So yesterday the pump arrived refurbished from the manufacturer (for $3,500). yay!
I attached the pump to the chamber and tried it out. All good.
For about 10 minutes.
Then i start hearing this intermittant “not good” sound. But maybe it’s just some rattling right?
We’ll the rattle turned into a shriek. When the pfeiffer tech heard the sound on the phone he said to send the unit back.
What a drag.
Prometheus Fusion Perfection 
Added bonus: I have to pay for fright back to pfeiffer.
Given the sorry state of the semiconductor industry, you should be able to buy all kinds of vacuum system components for real cheap. A lot of 8 inch tools are going for nearly scrap value.
Do you have turbo pumps? You’re going to need them to reach the kind of pressures you want for polywell reactions. Diffusion pumps are very cheap (a pain in the ass to maintain), but they do not pump Hydrogen well.
This pumps pictured is an integrated rough/turbo. i bought it cheap on ebay and it worked well for some time.
OK. The pump just left the building. Details as I get them.
[…] I received the pump back from the refurbish I fired it up and it was working fine for a bit, then I started hearing an […]