Archived - Fusor Progress

[Harris]

Mr. Hull has asked me to post my fusor project pictures here for others to view. I spent this weekend completing the support table for the fusor using a scrap aluminum plates and an old printer table. I drilled and taped 4 aluminum dowels as support legs for a aluminum ring that the fusor will mount to. I have included some of the information from my introduction for those who want a little more detail of the fusor assembly itself.

I built my fusor from two 10” hemispheres and two ISO 250 flange blank offs. Each blank off was machined to the proper I.D. to receive the hemisphere shells. The NW 40 and NW 63 ports were cut from old vacuum manifolds and machined for proper finish. The hemispheres holes were machined by myself (with assistance) using a Bridgeport Milling Machine.

The welding was done by a vacuum welder who just by chance built a fusor in college some years ago. He was quite enthusiastic about welding up another one. Once I had received the fusor weldment all that was left was to leak-check the chamber for any weldment leaks. For this task I used a Pfeiffer Vacuum SmartTest helium leak detector. Thanks to the outstanding welding experience of the welder there were only two small leaks, each associated with one of the NW 40 nipples. They were so minor that I was easily able to maintain 2.3 x 10-8 scale vacuum. To resolve the leak problem I resorted to Loctite 290 (Green in color) to seal the leaks. This method only took 15 minutes before both leaks were sealed.

[Mike Beauford]

Looks very nice, nice work. I'm almost jeaulous!

[Richard Hull]

Your name is added to the scroungers list. Very nice work. When you get a glow, post new images and we will move you to the plasma club.

Richard Hull

[Steven Sesselmann]

Kenyatta, very nice clean work!

Steven