New Year, New Fusor

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John Beutz
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 2:35 pm
Real name: John Beutz
Location: Minnesota

New Year, New Fusor

Post by John Beutz »

Significant progress has been made in the construction of my fusor in the last month, but a few questions remain. Will the adapters and inlets I have be leaky? How should I manipulate the valves to best control deuterium flow? All of these things I will answer empirically in the coming weeks as I begin testing and data collection.
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In the past few weeks, the remaining parts and pieces for the fusor have arrived from eBay, and a few trips to Menards later, my grandpa and I were ready to begin assembly. The other week, we welded a steel frame together. After we finished bolting a bottom and top plate on, I plan to paint it over to stop it from rusting. First, we set out the variac, vacuum pump, and semi-working thermocouple gauge on wood to see how everything would be positioned.
*Edit* The thermocouple gauge, which was working before, has failed after we lost the needle and the bolts to hold the gauge in place on the frame, an inconvenient time for failure given that the diffusion pump is finally installed. I have ordered an identical one to bolt in place, which I will install soon to take measurements.
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Next, we installed new braided steel tubing from the mechanical pump to diffusion pump, and connected to the diffusion pump "arm" with a makeshift rubber tube held on with hose clamps. Soon, I will replace this with an aluminum adapter welded on. You can kind of see the shutoff valve in between pump and chamber, and the custom made KF50-diffusion pump adapter bolted with some CF 2.75" bolts. The copper tubing will be the deuterium line.
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After planning where everything would fit, I bolted the bottom aluminum plate onto the frame. Also, here is a back view of the fusor when complete, showing the arrangement of parts and tubes going from the PEM cell to the chamber, water cooling, tape over what will be the high voltage feedthrough, and framing.
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My engineering teacher recommended that I enter the project into the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair, as an "Engineering" or Non-Inquiry Based Research project. They have strict guidelines as to maximum radiation dosage and who has to be where when high voltage is on, and no liquids or voltages over 36V are allowed at all at the fair. As I entered short-notice, I haven't had the time to find a qualified scientist to oversee high voltage work, so I won't be doing any work with this device, even on the demo level, until after the fair. By that point, however, my ballast resistor, volt/ammeter, new thermocouple gauge, BF3 tube, and repaired Eberline counter will be arriving, which is just in time to begin the actual work of the road to fusion.

Any thoughts on what I have here, or what I should look for as I begin testing?
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Richard Hull
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Real name: Richard Hull

Re: New Year, New Fusor

Post by Richard Hull »

Nice work there. It is great that you have an adult helping you with the needed welding and machining. Having this skill at hand can make a lot of things work that are not meant to fit together but are at hand and, or, inexpensive. I see the welded adapter to the odd ball diff pump flange. This is what smart, talented folks do when coming up against a problem.

My grandfather also had a workshop back in the 1950's and taught me a lot about tools, how to respect and use them and also how to take care of them.

All the best on your efforts.

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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