Fusor Construction

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Erik smith
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Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 7:05 pm
Real name: Erik smith

Fusor Construction

Post by Erik smith »

I have made major progress on my fusor. Using only my alcatel 2002bb roughing pump I can pull the system down to ~11 microns without the diffusion pump. The chamber has a very poor leak rate of ~2-3 microns/min when isolated from the vacuum pumps. To fire a plasma, a temporary supply consisting of an AC flyback driving a 2 stage multiplier stack, is used. After a few seconds of running, the grid starts to glow red hot and the pressure shoots way up.
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Richard Hull
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Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2001 9:44 am
Real name: Richard Hull

Re: Fusor Construction

Post by Richard Hull »

A mechanical pump pulling down to 11 microns is fine. Your leak rate is workable to do fusion. you just need to get a secondary pump in there and you should be able, with a good supply, to do fusion.

My mechanical pump pulls down to just about 10 microns before I turn on the diff pump and the combo pulls down into the high 10e-5 torr range. My leak rate is about the same as yours and with pumps running, proper valving and gas control I have no trouble going over two millions fusions/second.

I am not saying that you must seal those leaks or to get a better pump. I am just saying you need not worry about what you have now. You are capable now with what you have! Hang in there and you will learn how to control the system. Now is the time to constantly play with this advanced demo system and learn the characteristics of plasmas, voltages and currents to gain a full command of the system before you add the diff pump or turbo.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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