Fusor Forums

Over the course of the last 3 days I put together a rough demo fusor. I am using my homemade supply an aluminum vacuum chamber with silicone seals and a glass! window. All feed throughs (HV cables and vacuum hosebarb) are sealed with epoxy. The grids are made of stainless steel wire, the outer grid has solder joints while the inner grid is wound together (very low quality build, put it together quickly). The fusor drew 20mA-50mA (I didnt go further) @ a few 100V-1kV-2kV indicating that I do not have a very deep vacuum. I do not have any vacuum gauge other than "will it boil!?" (cold water boils so I have atleast 1000 Microns, also replace your pump oil if you do this). I am able to run for 10+ minutes without the supply or the grid getting dangerously hot, so I think I might be able to run it indefinetly.

Here a picture confirming the plasma:


The epoxy seal for the hose barb leaks like crazy so I am working on fixing that right now.

Finally I should mention that the external shell is connected to earth ground. As a result the outer grid sometimes arcs to the shell.

No picture appeared

Richard Hull

I see it just fine.

No image, just a red x in a box. Clicking on it does nothing.

Is the image Jpeg? Was it installed using the proper "upload attachment below?

Richard Hull

I uploaded it to an external image hosting site. Here is the original image:
And here are two images with the new seal. The vacuum is beter but still not good. I am still working with 30mA-40mA and 900V
As you can see the inner grid is deformed especially in the last two pictures. It gets very hot and tends to sag.

This is undoubtedly the worst plasma in the worst vacuum from the worst grid, I have ever seen.
I think this level of vacuum might easily be obtained with a hand pump!
I have entered your name in the list.

Richard Hull