Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Fusor III
Date: Dec 31, 02:09 am
Poster: Richad Hull

On Dec 31, 02:09 am, Richad Hull wrote:

All,

I have labored away for about 2 weeks now on vacation and after numerous difficulties and machining/milling nightmares, have completed my fusor III. This is a totally stainless steel (316L) fusor of perfectly spherical design with end window for a video camera, high voltage feed through on conflat fitting, KF 25 vacuum coupled lines, swagelock gas inlet and 1/8" NPT stainless swagelock nipple for a TC gauge right on chamber.

The device is 6" in diameter and I did every piece of work myself except the two stainless hemispheres. They came from Maryland Metal Spinning in Baltimore. All maching was done on my lathe, milling on my milling machine and TIG welds were also done using my new TIG welder.
Swagelock, conflat and KF fittings were purchased and then machined to suit my needs.

It looks a lot like one of the professional Farnsworth fusors, minus all the ion guns. Quite a beautiful piece of work if I do say so myself.

A full day was exhausted chasing down microscopic vacuum leaks at weld anomolies, flange gasket failures, outgassing components etc.

It might be noted that once I got the system to stabilize (hold pressure after valve off), it would not go below 20 microns. I had opened and closed the system all day and pumped from atm about 50 times. I had used acetone to locate leaks. I figured the oil in the pump might be fouled and I replaced it. It swung down to 000 on the digital TC gauge in about 5 minutes!

REMEMBER,if you valve off and the pressure holds, but is high, you have no leaks! CHANGE YOUR PUMP OIL!

In a quick jury rigged setup, I got a beautiful star mode at about 2 microns and 10kv, using only air. SUPERB! I video taped about 10 minutes of the 8 pointed star which was very delicate and beautiful. By jockeying the voltage and vacuum valve, I could get a vast range of star mode rays and intensities in the poissor.

I now have to set up a formal rack bed for the fusor, power supply, instruments and camera platforms.

More as this project advances.

Richard Hull