Easy Compression Fitting Build (aka Quick Connect)

Every fusor and fusion system seems to need a vacuum. This area is for detailed discussion of vacuum systems, materials, gauging, etc. related to fusor or fusion research.
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Mark Rowley
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Easy Compression Fitting Build (aka Quick Connect)

Post by Mark Rowley »

Being frugal I wasn’t thrilled about spending $30-50 for a Kurt Lesker Quick Connect compression fitting. So by using scrap aluminum stock and various bits around the shop I made one for the 0.50” dia test tube I’ll be using for the ion source. Being a universally utilized piece of vacuum hardware I figured I’d make this a separate post from the BOT 2021 thread.

Compression fittings are about as basic as can be so there’s no need to go into great detail. The pics should pretty much speak for themselves.

The end product took about 90 minutes to make and easily held a vacuum below 1 mTorr.


Shown here is the assembly with an adapter plate I made so I could test it using Fusor 2020.
0D4F247E-2E4B-4746-A57A-D874976F08AC.jpeg

Closeup of the compression fitting. The taper does not need to be very steep to be effective and mechanically strong.
4816F398-9648-4A94-87A2-FC25E089749A.jpeg

Assembled
4BA49CD0-163F-4A30-A57F-2C25B5F2E0A9.jpeg

Mounted to Fusor 2020
4E86B3CD-872E-49F0-AC21-6396809CB060.jpeg

Vacuum test passed with flying colors
5A5E5D62-7A6B-4FB4-B89D-9DB11B1F334F.jpeg

Mark Rowley
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Dennis P Brown
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Re: Easy Compression Fitting Build (aka Quick Connect)

Post by Dennis P Brown »

A skill young people today no longer get in middle school unlike some of us many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away ... ;)
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Mark Rowley
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Re: Easy Compression Fitting Build (aka Quick Connect)

Post by Mark Rowley »

Even in the 70's I've never seen metal shop taught in middle or Jr High. Here in Ca it always began in High School (9-12) but was completely gone by the mid 90's.

It should be noted that this particular compression fitting was mostly a test to see how it'd go together. The version for the BOT will have some distinct differences allowing the magnet to get closer to the extractor.

Mark Rowley
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Richard Hull
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Re: Easy Compression Fitting Build (aka Quick Connect)

Post by Richard Hull »

Well thought out and well executed, Mark!

I was on the college prep program during H.S. and shop was not an option. My machining began when about 12 in my grandfathers shop. However serious machining began after returning from Vietnam in 1970. Reading and doing brought me to my current level in machining by the late 70's as I bought my first home. By the mid nineties I had 3 Lathes and used them infrequently in my Tesla coil work. Once the fusor and other projects blossomed, the lathes saw much more frequent use. I was never an expert or even a very good machinist, just a barely competent one.

At all events, there are fewer and fewer people in the world today who have even been at a lathe. Real mechanical skill sets, much less an array of them, are rare in the individual today. One day someone who can use a real claw hammer without bending a nail will be a marvel to watch in action. The real skill is when one uses tools to make tools. That appliance, the opposable thumb and a reasoning brain can create things.

We have a good cadre of folks here at fusor. net who are not afraid to bend and shape metal to create all manner of nuclear devices. They call us amateurs only because no one is paying us to do this stuff!

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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Bob Reite
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Re: Easy Compression Fitting Build (aka Quick Connect)

Post by Bob Reite »

Great job! You had better luck than I did when attempting to make a home brew seal, I could never get mine to hold a vacuum better than a couple of microns. Would have been OK for a demo fusor, but not good enough to pump down to the level to get good gas purity for a fusion attempt.
The more reactive the materials, the more spectacular the failures.
The testing isn't over until the prototype is destroyed.
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