I too, as a young experimenter, remember that issue of scientific american's amateur scientist in the late fifties or early 60's (can't remember exactly).
I went so far then as to order up the special spun VDG terminal from Mr. Lee. I have it in my lab to this day. I never actually got going on the project before going off to college. That was a fairly complex project compared to a fusor and a subsequent warning appeared in Sci-Am about the extreme x-ray hazards of the device. (all glass).
I think this article and the warning update appeared in the first major published compilation of "Red" Stong's famous amateur scientist columns. (itself, now out of print). The title of the article was simply "A homemade atom smasher!" Can you imagine such an article appearing today in a front line publication?
Of course, the web abounds with stuff like this, from; "convert your MI carbine to full auto" to the "basics for building your own fission bomb."...............or make your own fusion reactor on a kitchen table top (ha ha)
Richard Hull
Created on Monday, March 12, 2001 1:37 PM EDT by Richard Hull