NB Fusor Update

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NickBarsley
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Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2019 11:42 am
Real name: Nick Barsley

NB Fusor Update

Post by NickBarsley »

Hi All,

After a few years or so of reading, noodling over designs, and steady purchasing from various places, construction has begun.

I've used aluminium 3030 profile to create a trolley to be able to gain access to all sides, whilst being able to keep it out of the way most of the time. I love working with this material, its not cheap but with a good quality saw it makes assembling the exact design you want a real pleasure. I'm planning for the 2 stage rotary pump to sit on the floor on a few layers of vibration absorbing material, as well as a super heavy piece of hardwood with retractable wheels (i.e. isolated from the main trolley when in use).

The attached photos of the trolley build aren't the most exciting, I've not yet finished (and shelving missing) but I finally feel like I've started.

Whilst I haven't finalized the full design nor have all the components yet, my thoughts so far are:

Vac system:
- 2 stage rotary pump
- Diffstak diffusion pump (63/150) (with servo added to give remote control), water cooling via old car radiator with fan
- 6 way cross chamber with 2.75 inch conflat (seems like a common option here)
- 2x MKS 901P loadlock transducer (one for the chamber, and one for the foreline)
- Various valves/pipes

HV Power system (home brew, similar to some designs I've seen Mark Rowley and others developing):
- Variac (with servo added to give remote control)
- Feeding into a 1000KVA transformer
- A MDQ100-16 rectifier, then a ZVS driver
- Feeding into a custom wound transformer coil (building a rPi driven coil winder atm to help me experiment and characterize the various cores I've purchased for this).
- Voltage multiplier

Control:
- Shielded box
- rPi; for remote control and data collection (TBC)
- DIN rail mounted relays for remote control, breakers
- Manual front-facing switches for all major system components
- Emergency power shut off (both on trolley, and also by the door on far side of room)

Fuel:
- Fuel cell, heavy water
- Dehumidification loop planned
- Not yet sourced mass flow controller, might start with manual needle valve-type set up

Planned measurement:
- Temp sensor array
- Current / voltage re: power system
- Geiger (not yet purchased, not seeing good options on ebay in the UK at the moment... considering a home brew?)
- Gas flow rate
- Pressures (chamber / foreline)
- Neutron detection, will start with bubble detector dosimeter of course... but also have purchased a corona tube off ebay - looking forward to building up the circuitry for running the tubes and the amplification/filtering of signal. Long project (and lots of learning) ahead on this one.
- rPi camera via mirror
- I've also upgraded a static monochromator (Verity Instruments) into a scanning one via a stepper and microcontroller, and so if I one day have the stability for a 7 second spectrum sweep I should be able to do some wavelength/spectrum analysis of the light emitted
- Evaluating a few different data acquisition options at the moment - will share thoughts on options in a later post

Shielding
- Planning complete shielding around chamber (initial focus on viewport at lower voltages); design tbc - though I've found Richard's (and others) posts on this most helpful

Any thoughts on my direction of travel would be welcome as I build towards my first demo run. It is my favourite past time to read up about this topic and learn from others on this wonderful website. I will keep the thread updated as I go and share photos/videos.

Nick
Attachments
A few cross-beams added - a view from above
A few cross-beams added - a view from above
A few bits of kit in their rough locations (minus shelving)
A few bits of kit in their rough locations (minus shelving)
Rolled into place for first time
Rolled into place for first time
Main outer frame assembled
Main outer frame assembled
Cutting set up - Makita circular saw specific for aluminium
Cutting set up - Makita circular saw specific for aluminium
Legs complete
Legs complete
The wheels
The wheels
Tapping the ends for wheels
Tapping the ends for wheels
Nice clean cuts
Nice clean cuts
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Richard Hull
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Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2001 9:44 am
Real name: Richard Hull

Re: NB Fusor Update

Post by Richard Hull »

Nice frame work and worth the effort, too. Such lab framing ain't cheap, but it is forever adjustable to suit future needs.... I guess you have found out that it's FILS, (First In Last Seen), in the picture ordering in our image du jour forum. Such fun having to organize and load you images in reverse temporal order. Keep up the fine 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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