Jim Stead progress

[Jim Stead]

I joined the forum last August and have been steadily working towards my Fusion goal. It's tough to get time away from work and family, so things are going slowly, but they are going. I wanted to post with what I have accomplished so far.

I started by reclaiming a space in my basement that was full to the ceiling with "stuff". This space would become the new lab.

After some build out, I now have have a bench to work with. I'll be adding shelves above and below the bench for storage.

The fusor is going to sit in the corner, with the controls about 5 feet to the left of it. The original X-ray controls, with an added variac behind one of those knobs, will control power. The 19" rack next to it will house the meters, turbo controller, NIM rack, etc.

The fusor is a 6" CF nipple about 11" tall, with a pair of 2.75 ports on the sides. The viewport is on the bottom, with a small board camera mounted below to look into it. The nipple connecting the turbo pump is unnecessarily long, so I will be replacing that. The 4 way cross will connect the chamber to a Varian smart-gauge (ION/Penning mix I believe), a DV-6 TC, a gas feed (D2 & N2 purge), and an MKS Baratron capacitance manometer. The cables coming out of the wall are the high voltage feed from the X-ray transformer, and a ground line I ran back to my electrical panel.

These meters will be panel mounted in the rack

I hope to find a large enough bottle of D2 someday to be able to use this regulator. But it looks like I'll be starting with a PEM cell and some mylar balloons.

Lots of misc parts in this picture. An He3 tube in bubble wrap, the sensor for the Varian smart gauge, Controller for the turbo pump, an ortec preamp for the He3 tube, a hydrogen purifier, vacuum parts, water pump for the turbo pump, batteries for the survey meter, cables, etc, etc. Those dark grey objects in the back on the right are lead blocks.

Finally, the NIM rack. I've got some extra amps in there as filler because they were cheap. I paid $4.99 for one of them. It's going to be a donor body for an audible NIM unit to help me monitor the neutron count.

So, that's it so far. Next steps are to finish the rack setup, hook up the vacuum pumps, and construct a grid. Hopefully my next post in this section will be some nice photo's of air plasma.

[Richard Hull]

Jim, It looks like you have a lot of first rate stuff there and are doing a great job of assembling it and have a very direct path to be able to do fusion with some ease. Like you, I purchased a lot of useless or damaged NIM modules simply to be sacrificial in nature to house items of my own design. Keep us informed. You obviously have a job with some disposable income. The younger guys do not have such a leg up. Again, like you, I had to work around work schedules in my early 50's to work on my fusor system. As I was the first amateur attempting fusion in a fusor, I spent two years on demo systems and control issues. I did fusion soon after this venue started on songs.com in 1998.

My first pass at fusion worked due to my long period of doing and learning with demo systems. For folks today, fusor.net has most of the hard work, pitfalls and best advise available to allow a strong dedicated person to advance straight away to fusion. It helped that I worked as an electronics engineer, was a long time amateur scientist, amateur machinist, welder etc. I owned most of the disciplines needed to succeed. It appears you are no stranger to some of this as well.

Keep us informed, of course, as your efforts progress.

Richard Hull

[RobertTubbs]

I'm definitely envious of the nice work space!

This'll be a very fruitful project obviously.

RT

[JuanDosio]

i'd give my right arm for such a lovely place to work! also if you don't mind me asking what exactly will you be using your nuclear instrumentation modules for? if i'm not mistaken their programmable modules for acquiring accurate data but i'm quite iffy on the details and am quite interested to learn more.

Cheers,
Dosio

[Richard Hull]

I think there is a FAQ on NIM.

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=5107

Basically the NIM modules are not programable at all! They are adjustable within the limits of their design capabilities. Nim modules are all fixed, functional modules, much like individual building blocks likely to be found in a real block diagram of a nuclear measuring system. They act as pieces in a nuclear insturmention erector set or Mechano set. By linking them together, in a useful order, they create a finished and often special purpose nuclear instrument ala 1970's style.

They can keep a nuclear investigator out of the mess and morass of electronic details just as a prefitted automobile kit with an engine, a brake system, a steering system, suspension system and ignition system would allow a capable simple mechanic to assemlbe a functional automobile's framework.

It is noted that this sort of thing, (NIM), is grossly out of date as modern microcontrollers can do all the tasks faser and better, but you are back to needing a rather complete knowledge of nuclear instrumentation, electronics and have programming skills related to the controller of choice. This is a steep learning curve and most amateur fusioneers come ill-equipped to deal with much more than building block capabilities. Thus the NIM concept is still of value.

Richard Hull