Yesterday I input power into my fusor for the first time, and was happy to see the familiar purple plasma thru the viewport.
I still need to work on sealing it all up nice, and hooking my lecture bottle of D2 up to the system.
I also need a preamp and a shaping amp to go with the He3 tube I got from Carl.
Just thought I'd post some pictures of my progress.
Thiago Olson
Archived - First Plasma
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tolson1118
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Archived - First Plasma
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Jon Rosenstiel
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Re: First Plasma
Sweet! Very nice setup, Thiago. Proud you should be.
Jon Rosenstiel
Jon Rosenstiel
Re: First Plasma
I agree!! Very nicely done. We'll be looking forward to news of your efforts with an operating Fusor, in the future. That's a nice looking Xray Transformer, too. Just be sure to have a good and trustworthy Radiation detector on whenever you are running th high voltage above about 10 kV. Whether Xrays or Neutrons you don't want to absorb more than a few.
Dave Cooper
Dave Cooper
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Richard Hull
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Re: First Plasma
Nice looking steup, though I had to wait to get to work to view them. I have archived this and placed you in the Plasma club.
Richard Hull
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
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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tolson1118
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Re: First Plasma
Sorry for the large pictures, I forgot what resolution they were.
I hope to be getting some neutron output pretty soon here.
Thiago Olson
I hope to be getting some neutron output pretty soon here.
Thiago Olson
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Carl Willis
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Re: Archived - First Plasma
Hi Thiago,
Very nice. This fusor will make neutrons handily.
It's interesting to see sorption pumps in play here. Are you planning to use them? They are probably not going to be too helpful in a continuous-flow fusor. However, they come with some nice bellows-seal valves. An upgrade you might want to consider would be selling one of the sorption pumps and buying a diffusion pump to put in its place.
Good work!
-Carl
Very nice. This fusor will make neutrons handily.
It's interesting to see sorption pumps in play here. Are you planning to use them? They are probably not going to be too helpful in a continuous-flow fusor. However, they come with some nice bellows-seal valves. An upgrade you might want to consider would be selling one of the sorption pumps and buying a diffusion pump to put in its place.
Good work!
-Carl
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tolson1118
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Re: Archived - First Plasma
Hi Carl,
Yeh, in order for me to get the continuos flow for high neutron counts, I think ill try what you suggested. Now I just need to find a diffusion pump somewhere. Do you think attaching it where one of the sorption pumps are would slow down the pumping speed to much? because of the long lengths of tubing.
Thiago Olson
Yeh, in order for me to get the continuos flow for high neutron counts, I think ill try what you suggested. Now I just need to find a diffusion pump somewhere. Do you think attaching it where one of the sorption pumps are would slow down the pumping speed to much? because of the long lengths of tubing.
Thiago Olson
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Carl Willis
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Re: Archived - First Plasma
Thiago,
Just putting the diff pump right where one of the sorption pumps is would be fine. As I have said in the vacuum forum, pumping speed is really not important (or even desirable) for a fusor because you don't want to waste gas. The goal of the diff pump is really to (1) eliminate oil contamination from massive rough-pump backstreaming near that pump's ultimate vacuum; (2) remove contaminant vapors from the fusor to give the highest partial pressure of pure deuterium; and (3) get a significant speed increase over the near-zero speed (maybe 0.01 l / s) of a mechanical pump at 20 microns, in order to make the continuous-flow scheme work well. A good foreline trap (KJL Micromaze or similar) will accomplish #1 pretty well and #2 to a lesser extent, but a diff pump will do all three jobs second-to-none if run correctly. Try to buy a tiny diff pump that you can take apart easily and fill with high-quality oil. Bargain diff pumps show up on eBay all the time.
The other sorption pump should probably be put in storage unless you really do plan to use it. In fact, unless it's chilled, it will probably hurt your ultimate vacuum by acting as a giant virtual leak as the zeolite in it outgasses. They really do have to be baked at 300 deg. C for a few hours and then chilled with LN2 to be worth a darn.
As I said, this does all look very good and you're beyond the most challenging stages of the building process.
-Carl
Just putting the diff pump right where one of the sorption pumps is would be fine. As I have said in the vacuum forum, pumping speed is really not important (or even desirable) for a fusor because you don't want to waste gas. The goal of the diff pump is really to (1) eliminate oil contamination from massive rough-pump backstreaming near that pump's ultimate vacuum; (2) remove contaminant vapors from the fusor to give the highest partial pressure of pure deuterium; and (3) get a significant speed increase over the near-zero speed (maybe 0.01 l / s) of a mechanical pump at 20 microns, in order to make the continuous-flow scheme work well. A good foreline trap (KJL Micromaze or similar) will accomplish #1 pretty well and #2 to a lesser extent, but a diff pump will do all three jobs second-to-none if run correctly. Try to buy a tiny diff pump that you can take apart easily and fill with high-quality oil. Bargain diff pumps show up on eBay all the time.
The other sorption pump should probably be put in storage unless you really do plan to use it. In fact, unless it's chilled, it will probably hurt your ultimate vacuum by acting as a giant virtual leak as the zeolite in it outgasses. They really do have to be baked at 300 deg. C for a few hours and then chilled with LN2 to be worth a darn.
As I said, this does all look very good and you're beyond the most challenging stages of the building process.
-Carl