Page 1 of 1

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 2:00 pm
by Andrew Robinson
About what I expected. Thanks!

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 4:23 pm
by Werner Engel
Today we started to stick the first parts together.
The doublecross is DN100.
The windows are not AR coated yet, but will be ...

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 6:56 am
by Richard Hull
Wow! This is gonna' be a big boy! Wish I had a piece of chalk. ( there is a back story) As I am also a model railroader there is a real story about the Union Pacific Railroad ordering the largest locomotive ever made in a fleet of these steam locos in the early 40's. As the first one of these million pound + locos rolled out of the builder shops, some unknown worker took a big piece of white chalk and wrote in big foot tall letters on the front smoke box cover... "Big Boy"... The name stuck and that group or class of engines acquired that worker's moniker for all time.

This fusor is truly going to be a big boy among fusors, once it is lit up!

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 10:56 am
by Adam Szendrey
Wow, that is a beautiful, big, clean system you are building there! Love the large windows. Can't wait to see it in action! Just checked out your introduction, nice to see someone so close to me (I live near Budapest), building such a wonderful fusor. Maybe one day I'll hop over and take a look :). Eventually we'll have fusion cons around here! (unless I missed it and there already are happening, which is perfectly possible considering how I've been out of the loop!)

Ps.: That HV feedthrough with the massive insulator made me drool!

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 11:35 pm
by Frank Sanns
Very nice but I would need two insulators. $$$$$ :-(

Re: Archived - European Fusor - HV-PS

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:15 pm
by Werner Engel
Hi friends of the high voltage!

My new HV-transformator just arrived!

Here some data:
30 kV
2 kVA !!!
about 60 kg of material ;-)
including a thermal circuit breaker adjusted to 75°C.

This will create about 42 kV DC at approx. 50 mA - I love it!
If it's not enough, I can add another one reaching 84 kV - but this seems to be toooo much!
Four of them would reach the voltage for p-B11 :-)))
No, I'm kidding!

I will test it this Friday - whish me luck.

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:27 pm
by Rich Feldman
Good luck with that transformer, Werner. :-)

Did you have it made to order, or was it designed for something else?
What are all those primary taps for?
Will it be used under oil?

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 11:00 am
by Werner Engel
OK, I had bad luck!

Unfortunatly, after just reaching 18 kV, we had an arc between the HV coil and the core.
End of the story - I will try to let it repair on monday.
Isolation has to be improved or I have to submerge it in oil - what I tried to avoid.

Here you see two pics showing the corona discharge close to the rectifier diodes (in the darker picture) and the whole setup (built together with Philipp).

@ Rich: The primary taps are to pre-adjust voltage.

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 11:40 am
by Werner Engel
OK, here is the solution to my last problem:
The Isolation at the bottom of the HV coils was optimized with this black isolation resin.

Should work now!
I'll keep you informed.

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 2:53 pm
by Werner Engel
Hi friends of fusion!

Within the next weeks I will travel to ITER.org together with some Austrian scientists. We will have a Special tour and also meet some of the guys working at the superconducting components. Pictures will be available in October.

Her ist an actual picture of my new CF double cross ready to be connected to the turbo. The old Iso-KF thing has to go ...


BR,
Werner

PS: Please also have a look at my invitation to the "European Fusor Meeting" viewtopic.php?f=47&t=11622

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2017 7:03 am
by Dennis P Brown
Why are you reluctant to place that transformer under oil? It would certainly be safer - both for you and the x-former! Especially if you intend to get up to 40 kV; above 25 kV electrical items get flaky (they can short to places/distances that normally one would not guess) and oil can provide a lot of safety margin in any system. The oil also allows less chance to have the high voltage jump to something that you are near or touching that would normally be safe ... .

Those diodes look extremely under rated for any significant current (I use 1 amp, 20 kV diodes (two in series, of course) and these costed me $2 each.)

Your chamber and high voltage feed-thru are impressive.

I see in the image those diodes are shorting to the mounting plate (wood?) You need to make a proper mount and seriously consider placing the diodes under oil (besides electrical isolation, provides improved cooling.) I mount my diodes on a plexiglass plate. I use ceramic stand offs to hold the plate up (to increase insulation) in a plastic tub that I fill with oil. The diode assembles lift out easily. Besides cooling the oil makes corona issues go away. I also save money because the wiring between diodes is just normal low voltage wire (110 v stuff); I only use the expensive 40 kV stuff outside the oil.

I use inexpensive synthetic motor oil (a research paper on dielectric properties showed that this oil was equal/superior for these applications so I decided to try it) and it works extremely well up to 60 kV (so far, max voltage I have tested to date.)

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2017 4:54 pm
by Werner Engel
@ Dennis:
Using oil was an idea – but I try to stay dry as long as possible. The transformer has about 40 kg – so moving it and building a hull around it seems not to be that easy. I once thought about using SF6 instead of oil – but it was not possible to get it anymore.

Regarding the diodes: I already put them in epoxy – works perfect.
More currents seems a good idea to me. Which diodes did you use and where did you get them from?

Re: Archived - European Fusor

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 7:15 am
by Dennis P Brown
I got them on ebay and there from china. They really do a good job and are a steal considering. They are rated to 20 kV and an amp but I hardly trust that so I use two for 32 kV and my system has a max surge of 100 - 200 ma.) They will handle 100 millamps without an issue and could do a good bit higher I bet - as for 2 amp, well, please but they are really big.

I like oil because it is fool proof (mostly) and just letting the item drain over night cleans most off. Then a bit of alcohol and a cloth does the trick. Using cheap synthetic motor oil (same or superior performance to x-former oil) makes even large systems easy and cheap to immerse.


OK, found them:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-4-8-10pcs-PRH ... 37BR1E7QgA

These are a bargain at under $2 each! They really do work nicely (have never lost even one for any reason) - of course, just never use them near their highest rated voltage! If you exceed 16 kV, do use two in series. At these prices, can't go wrong so get extra in case you decide to do more systems (shipping and waiting for them is a hassle) - I have a lot of extras for those reasons. Their direction is as marked on their sides.