Variations on Pressure Cooker Fusor

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Dan Tibbets
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Variations on Pressure Cooker Fusor

Post by Dan Tibbets »

I have in the past made fusor vessels (at least for demo purposes) out of surplus pressure cookers. The first had a single pass through in the bottom of the pan. I have since moved to placing the feedthrough(s) in the lid so that I do not need to reach to the bottom of the pan to work on the feedthrough/ electrode.

Secondly I have in the past depended on the normal gasket and retaining tabs with positive external atmospheric pressure to seal the gasket. This works most of the time, but I wondered if the seal could be better. The picture shows using blocks on the lid tabs to raise the surface up to where C- clamps can provide compression. This is more like bolt compressed seal on chambers. The black sand was sprinkled on partially melted nylon blocks cut from a kitchen cutting board. Also the blocks were sanded to a trapezoidal cross section shape. This combination prevented the clamps from sliding off of the beveled lid. I originally thought about building a wood collar in two pieces to hold the lid down against the pan/ gasket. But the C- clamp approach was easier and seems to work well.
In this pressure cooker I was achieving best vacuums of ~ 25-30 Microns with a small diffusion pump. With the clamps tightened to moderate pressure I obtained a vacuum of about 12 Microns. I may have achieved slightly better vacuums if I had conditioned this two quart chamber for more than a few days.

lid4electrodeswaIMG_1091.jpg
clampPB030005a.jpg


D. Tibbets
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Richard Hull
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Re: Variations on Pressure Cooker Fusor

Post by Richard Hull »

Looks like a good vacuum to me. You don't see those faint fine rays until well below 20 microns. Nice work!

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
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Rich Feldman
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Re: Variations on Pressure Cooker Fusor

Post by Rich Feldman »

Hooray for Dan.
Good demonstration of using nontraditional parts for fun, artistic, and/or practical reasons.
All models are wrong; some models are useful. -- George Box
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