Archived - I got my demo fusor working

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Charles Elkins
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Archived - I got my demo fusor working

Post by Charles Elkins »

I finally recived my second pump and got the demo fusor work tonight. I will soon be getting a diffusion pump and begin building a better machine. I attached two photos of my fusor it may be the cheapest ever built I have only spent about $120 on it.
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Steven Sesselmann
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Well done Charles,

Just be careful with that glass bell jar, if it is not the right kind of bell jar, it can implode and injure someone.

Steven
http://www.gammaspectacular.com - Gamma Spectrometry Systems
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Steven_Sesselmann - Various papers and patents on RG
Digix
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by Digix »

Great idea, why I did not thought about that, and it looks great.
Here is what I made instead(just for vacuum testing)


jars are designed to keep some vacuum so they will not implode for sure.
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Charles Elkins
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by Charles Elkins »

Thank you for your concern. The thought of the glass imploding is always continually in the back of my head. When I first started drawing a vacuum in the globe I was putting a trash bag over just in case. When I bought it I checked all of them on display and picked the one with no bubbles chips or imperfections that I could see. I also calculated the safe wall thicknesses for a glass vacuum sphere this size which is 2mm and the safe flat thickness for 44mm which works out to 5mm. The globes walls at the bottom edge where its thinnest are 1.89mm and its 5~6mm thick on the flat part. Its work very well so far but I still worry that I will over heat the glass and cause it to crack and implode. I will be building another machine using a diffusion pump and I won’t be using as thin of glass on it.
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Charles Elkins
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by Charles Elkins »


For insulation on my pass threw I used a sparkplug gable that I pulled the inner wire out of a old sparkplug cable it’s rated at 50,000 and 500ºF. I also used PVC connectors for the pass-through. I put masking tape over the bottom stuck my wire threw then filled it with epoxy I also had tape holding the core centered. I used 5 min epoxy that comes in the syringe thing that mixes it for you. I let it set for about an hour and presto one high voltage pass threw.
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Charles Elkins
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by Charles Elkins »

Here are some photos of my other core, the epoxy suringe got stuck and messed it up because it didnt get enough hardener
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Nanos
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by Nanos »

Several people suggested to me that I needed something like a non-magnetic stainless steel cage around it, as such I've gone for fine stainless mesh wrapped around the outside of my glass bell jar. (Though someone else suggested it wouldn't be a bad idea to put some inside too lining the glass.)
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by abhaylett »

Congratulations Charles! Can you give us some details about your vacuum system and your power supply?
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Charles Elkins
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by Charles Elkins »

The power supply is a rectified 12kv 30ma neon light transformer My educated guess is that it puts out about 10,900 vdc. The vacuum system is two rotary style air conditioning compressors in series. They each have inline filters and check valves so once the vacuum is pulled they can be turned off for 10 min or so before needing to be turned back on. The vacuum gauge is off a air conditioning fill manifold and I zero it before tests.
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Digix
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Re: Strange Phenomenon

Post by Digix »

what you made is not much of usual fusor. it is just glow discharge lamp, since no fusion happens there.

the patterns you see probably appears because your power supply have pulsations, or because your pressure is pulsating
it happens for me too when i tested glow discharge in simple glass tube.

try to put capacitor to reduce voltage pulsations and check if this pattern still exist then.
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Charles Elkins
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Re: Strange Phenomenon

Post by Charles Elkins »

The core which is not in the photo continued to glow normally, the pattern was a diffraction type in that it was the same arc shape from top and sides. It was cone shape with the base being the diameter of the demo fusors core and initially extended from the core to the wall but then shrunk after about 1 minute. I did not look to see what the pressure was at but I know the voltage was on at full power the whole time. Both my pumps and my power supply have ripples in them and I don’t plan to change them till I build the new machine. I tried to trigger this event again and did manage to get a point on the wall to glow white but it did not expand. If I can get it to reoccur I will take more photos.
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by DaveC »

Charles - I like your style of improv!!

It goes without saying that one needs to be careful. Also, you should have something around to check for xray emission, eventually. Although with 10 - 12 kV on your present setup, it is not really a major worry.

Watch the "white hot" spots (I presumed you meant on the wall of the glass??!) That's glass's characteristic glow when it's on the way to failure... so be real careful there. An implosion could ruin more than your whole day...

Congratulations, on your achievments. You are well on your way, in a fine... "baling wire and masking tape" style of experimentation.

We'll look for yet more interesting work in the future.

Dave Cooper
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Charles Elkins
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by Charles Elkins »

I have a CD V-715 Radiological Survey Meter that I keep on during my tests, so far the needle has not moved. I think I will get a V-700 or other meter that can detect X-rays as I didn’t realize that the 715 didn’t till I got this message and look it up. :-|
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Re: Strange Phenomenon

Post by Nanos »

I'm very much a beginner myself here, so bare with me if I'm wrong here, but that reminds me of what they call here bugle jets (ye old search function if told to look for 'bugle' will find plenty to keep you busy for a while, in fact, I'm sure everyone would recommend reading the entire forum back to front..) and I have a little thought about those myself;

http://focusfusion.org/log/index.php/fo ... thread/154

Namely, that I wonder if they are actually something we want, rather than not want.

Also to mention what was said to me before, that glass is hazardious to use for a container on the basis that it can heat up in small spots very rapidly.

What kind of glass are you using, (bowls off the shelf ?) and how did you join them together ?

I (and I imagine others too.) would find it most interesting to see as much detail as possible written up on your design and build process.
Nanos
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by Nanos »

I too like the Heath Robinson style, and might suggest at least wearing protective goggles.

Will a cheap simple geiger counter be enough to check for X-rays ?
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Charles Elkins
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Re: Strange Phenomenon

Post by Charles Elkins »

Its an off the shelf bowl from Wal-Mart’s Craft section, the strange thing about this Bugle Jet is that it came off the wall of the Fusor and did not seam to affect the core at all, I though initially that it had burned a small hole in the copper outer grid wire but I inspected it and what I though was a hole was just a black film that flaked off when I drug my finger across it. I tried to reproduce it last night with no success. I thought that maybe the core was closer and that it grew out of a low pressure arc but nothing happened in my experiment with the outer grid wire 1/2 inch and 1 inch further in at one point. I still don’t know what caused it. And have not seen anything that seamed to have the same effect of a conical diffraction pattern. I the arc patter was the same from top and sides. I plan on showing the physics professors here at Tarleton the photos I have. I will post an update if I find out anything or can get it to occur again.
Nanos
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Re: Strange Phenomenon

Post by Nanos »

Video would be nice if possible.

Pyrex bowl ?

2 bowls ?
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Charles Elkins
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Re: Strange Phenomenon

Post by Charles Elkins »

One glass Sphere like bowl on aluminm bace plate with Silicone seal. Turns out strange phenomenon was epoxy insulation left on the copper oxidizing. :P
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Richard Hull
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Re: Strange Phenomenon

Post by Richard Hull »

I moved Charles to the plamsma club. Nice work Charles!

This is NO STRANGE PHENOMENON!

This is stock demo fusor operation, as Nanos said this is a bugle jet scenario and all is well and normal.

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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Richard Hull
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by Richard Hull »

The coarse ionization meter Charles shows is pretty much only usable in an all out nuclear exchange of H bombs and would assist you in browning evenly on both sides once the balloon goes up. (should you be unfortunate enough to survive.) Look at this meter as a nuclear oven thermometer.

A GM counter is really what you need or a mrem reading ionization chamber.

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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Charles Elkins
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Re: I got my demo fusor working

Post by Charles Elkins »

Thank you for moving me to the plasma Club :). I plan on buying a CVD 700 before I build another Fusor. I am also thinking about building an Automatic radiation kill switch that will shut down the power if unexpected radiation occurs. Most of the experiments I want to carry out don’t require fusion to occur but the machine could potentially generated x-ray. It may take me a while to get to the neutron club still trying to get a hold of a Diffusion pump, but I might build one over Christmas break if I don’t find one by then.
Chad K.
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Re: Archived - I got my demo fusor working

Post by Chad K. »

Hello I'm quite curious as to how I can build a demo fusor. I'd like to do something soon so I can have some experience with the whole fusion process and I'd like to build something cheap as I can learn with it for now. Then build the big one later. Anyways, if someone could tell me or if the original poster could tell me how he built this one I'd like to know. Thank you very much.

-Chad
Michigan
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Charles Elkins
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Re: Archived - I got my demo fusor working

Post by Charles Elkins »

For vacuum I used two rotary air conditioner compressors ones out put in to the others input one pushes against atmosphere the other against the vac of the first and they got down to the micron level. I recommend setting them in a cold bath of ice water to prevent them from over heating and wearing out to fast I got both mine off eBay I can look up the part numbers if you want them. I used a clear fish bowl from Wal-Mart as the vacuum chamber this worked very well I recommend the ones that are ¼ to ½ inch thick side walls. For my hv pass threw I used PVC fittings one I filled with 5min epoxy to make it air tight. I used a silicone cooking mat thing from the kitchen isle to make the seal between the bowl and the aluminum surface. Vacuum line was a simple copper line with a terminal at one in sealed with an o-ring and washer. My HV source is a rectified 10kv neon light transformer I bought 15kv diodes of eBay for $20 I think. Outer grid was a large coil of copper wire.
Chad K.
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Re: Archived - I got my demo fusor working

Post by Chad K. »

Thank you. So this costs around 200 dollars you say? To what extent of knowledge do I need to know with this. To build and such. I'm at a beginning stage but I learn best with hands on and this is easier then the full blown fusor. Thank you for your help.


-Chad
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Charles Elkins
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Re: Archived - I got my demo fusor working

Post by Charles Elkins »

Here are a few more photos from way back in 2007.
Cool Effect
Cool Effect
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oil over heated
oil over heated
finally there
finally there
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