Fusor Forums

Hello! My name is Noah Finlinson and I am a 16 year old who recently found out about fusors. My main goal is to create a working fusor cheaply, but I really want a nice spherical vacuum chamber. I am planning on finding parts and building my own, however I don't know where to find individual parts. So far I have found a couple of websites that can custom build a vacuum chamber for you such as www.vacom.de, however, these might be too expensive. I am also interested in finding and meeting people in my area who can help build or give me knowledge on my Farnsworth fusor. Any help is appreciated and have a good day!

Hi Noah,

Nice to meet you! I worked on a fusor about ten years ago with the University of Utah as a demonstration tool and am starting to revitalize plans to dust off all my parts and finally make my own. I still occasionally peruse the forums every little while, so it was pretty serendipitous timing that I saw your post just today. You are correct in that having a company make you a custom chamber will be prohibitively expensive. However, there are a lot of good resources in the Salt Lake area that can be extremely helpful. For instance, the University of Utah has a surplus storefront that is hands down the best place to get a used vacuum pump when they pop up there from time to time. There are also a couple local vacuum technology companies that are pretty friendly to the cause. I also have spent the last ten years still working with getting supporting equipment for vacuum stuff like a helium leak detector and machining equipment, so once you get further along I'd be happy to offer a hand.

If you'd ever like to visit the University and take a look at the fusor we did and get some starting ideas, I know the guy at the physics department would be happy to let us take a visit. Let me know if that would sound like something you'd like to do.

Again good to meet you and best of luck on your adventure, it is a great endeavor.

What are some of the vacuum supliers?

Duniway Stockroom is one of the better suppliers, I have used.

Richard Hull

Dunaway Stockroom is my vacuum parts supplier of choice. Best prices I've found if you have to buy new.

LDS Vacuum Shopper often has lower prices and a wider selection of specialized connectors but Dunaway has better General vacuum products.

Sorry for the delay in replying back to you on this one, I wanted to make sure I checked with the local suppliers to get their permission to put them online here.

Here in Salt Lake City there are two vacuum companies that I know of: Laco Technologies and Fluidx. Laco covers the construction of vacuum chambers and leak detectors, Fluidx does a lot with vacuum pumps.

Laco Technologies (https://www.lacotech.com/) has helped me in the past with some used flanges that they had laying around and were willing to offer them at a pretty good discount. I also got a lot of help from them in finding some leaks in my chamber back before I had my own leak detector. Their services can be somewhat pricey as expected for vacuum chamber stuff but are nice guys and happy to work with hobbyists. If you are trying to build a chamber I would first read through a bunch of the FAQs here, figure out a basic plan for a chamber, then call these guys and ask if you can stop by and see if they have anything they might have around that you could make work.

Fluidx (http://www.fluidxinc.com/contact-us/) has been super helpful as well in helping me test out a couple of pumps I had picked up cheap from the University of Utah's surplus store. They sell vacuum oil, hoses, and flanges at pretty comparable prices to Duniway, and it is really nice to pick up locally rather than having to ship something just for one flange or the like. They also sell refurbished vacuum pumps depending on if you have the budget for it. They also might occasionally have an older used pump that hasn't been refurbished that they could sell for pretty inexpensive as far as company prices go. You will certainly find one at university surplus for less money if you wait, but the ones here you know what you will be getting. Again, once you get an idea of what you want, give them a call, explain what you are working on and see if they have anything that you could make work. They are a really good group of people.

For both of these companies, their used/cheaper stuff is something they are not primarily in business for of course, so for anybody reading and deciding to contact them please be courteous and see what they are willing to accommodate.

I do know there is another company in Clearfield called Redline Chambers, but I have never contacted them as they primarily make very large chambers from the looks of things. If you do get in touch with them let me know how it went.

Hope this is helpful!