Fusor Forums

Some years back I bought a data acquisition starter kit from these folks, works well for plotting leak-up rate.

https://www.dataq.com/

Jon Rosenstiel

Wow! Very nice Finn, love what you've done with your cooling system. More than once I've sat staring at my cube trying to visualize how to configure cooling water passages similar to what you have done. Good, and very neat, work. Steampunk-ish indeed.

JonR

Roberto,
I tried what this guy in the video shows, and it did result in a thin coating. But it's extremely slow, and the titanium wire filaments burn out much too easily.

https://youtu.be/-lh1LhoRBaY

JonR

I wonder if titanium’s effect on neutron production is, in some way, related to its gettering action? During the coating process I’ve noticed that when the Ti pellets melt and start vaporizing chamber pressure drops about 2E-05 Torr.

JonR

Thanks Roberto.

The endcaps have a concave radius, and from my experience titanium sheet is nearly impossible to form.

JonR

Jim, Today I tried (twice) what you suggested, taking a reading at 40 kV after a 50 kV run. The changes were small, just the typical run to run differences. I'm attaching a paper with info gleaned from the K J Lesker website. As I pretty much followed what they had done I would guess the Ti coating ...

Thank you for the kind words Richard, but you guys never get to see all the stuff I screw up and have to toss out.

JonR

Thanks guys.

Liam, as of yet I haven't noticed any issues with outgassing, she's been quite stable. Did have lots of outgassing/runaway problems (not sure which it was) with a titanium cathode. Now I'm wondering about how well an embedded titanium target (al la Mark Rowley) would work.

JonR

A while back Joe Gayo suggested I try coating my cube’s endcaps with titanium, mentioned I might be surprised at the Ti coating’s effect on NPR. (Neutron Production Rate) As usual, I was a little skeptical, but the fire was lit and I decided this would also be a good opportunity to finally put toget...

I think Jim may have hit upon what's going on here. Below images are of a brand new, freshly machined aluminum (6061-T6) cathode. I believe the greenish plasma is related to the “burning off” of aluminum oxide and/or other contaminates. As a side note, neutron production rate of this cathode was abo...