Prometheus Fusion Perfection

All photos.

Last week I mentioned I would start taking smaller steps. Turns out to be a good strategy.

My small step is investigating the coil former’s outgassing.

I put the coil former into the chamber:

At first I had to troubleshoot a gross leak. By listening I traced the problem to the connection from pump to chamber:

The pump had shifted under the chamber and unseated the gasket:

I fixed this leak with a fresh gasket. Now I don’t hear any leaks.

The turbo pump spins up almost all the way:

Either I have a small quiet leak or the coil formers are outgassing like crazy.

I’m going to let the pump run overnight. If outgassing is the culprit it will abate with time.