FAQ - So, You want to build a fusor? Beginners Beginnings

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Richard Hull
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FAQ - So, You want to build a fusor? Beginners Beginnings

Post by Richard Hull »

If you are new and want to make a fusor, here are a few things you might need.

Money...Time.....Skills.....Determination.

Money..... can buy you anything if you have enough of it. Meaning, you can have a fusor up and running in less than a week with zero time spent on your part with zero skills required on your part and only enough determination to pay for the thing. All of this can be yours for about $25,000-$50,000.

Time....If you have a vast amount of time, excellent skills, a decent inventory of amateur science instruments, electronics and vacuum stuff and a whole lot of determination, the money part can be held to well under $1000.00 and you will be fusing in several months to maybe a year or two.

Skills.....If you have a lot of skills with hands-on machining, welding, electrical-electronics and some chemistry, planning and construction skills you are way out in front. Coupled with a good deal of determination and scrounging skills and some small cash outlay, you can be fusing rather quickly.

Determination..... Without this key ingredient you are really hindered without a lot of cash. It is the will to "do" that drives amateur fusioneers. This is a tough road and only the folks with the "right stuff" will make it all the way. If successful, regardless of age, education or station, it will prove to yourself and others that you are in a class by yourself.

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We are often bombarded by hopeful newbies with questions and a few can be answered here.

Is there one set of instructions on a complete building of a fusor? What is the limit here?..... Can this thing produce any power?..........

First, you will find no all encompassing manual on building a fusor here....No list of parts. What you will find in the FAQs is much of the information you need to tackle each obstacle you might encounter in an average build. A successful fusor can be assembled in many ways from many components. We will not command you to make it in any particular way. You are on your own to make it in any manner you see fit that works for you within the limits of your skills and purse.

The average fusioneer that builds here can, at best, do two million nuclear fusions each second. (one million neutrons/second, ~10e6 n/s) That's about the limit.

No!... No power!.... The average fusor, at best, will not produce more than one ten millionth of 1 watt of nuclear fusion energy. 1/10,000,000 watt or 10e-7 watt. This microscopic amount of, true, nuclear energy is lost in the thermal noise produced by massive thermal losses based on the required input power which is almost a billion times the amount of fusion energy produced! (100-1000 watts input from the wall outlet for only one ten millionth of one watt fusion output.)

If this is all that a fusor can do, then why build a fusor?.......

If you can't answer this for yourself, then you do not pack the gear needed to be here or be successful at fusion. 'Nuff said....

What will I need?............

A whole bunch of stuff!..... All kinds of interesting stuff!..... Stuff you may not know how to use or even understand at first!

You are expected to be self-driven and be capable of self-directed learning. You are expected to explore the FAQs in the various forums that touch upon the various required skills, material needs and technologies touched upon during the design, construction and operation of a fusor. First, go to images du jour forum and look at the fusors! Once you have an idea of the construction via "Monkey see" Start looking at the FAQs above each forum's listing before posing any more silly questions like this one which would require a book to answer. This is the first part of "Monkey-do"! If you read the bulk of the FAQs in all forums, you will have effectively read a "quick rinse" book on fusors and fusion.

What about help, I am quite young. How should I proceed?

Get a mentor. A willing school science teacher, engaged parents, an engineer working at a technical firm, etc.

If you are between 15 and 18 and are without a normal income, you will need a sponsor. A sponsor can be parents willing to fund your effort or a teacher or professional that can get you certain materials on loan or gifted to you by a school, business or institution such as your school or a college.

Impediments:

Yes, there are many and for most, they are often the very thing that ends the dream of doing fusion. they are....

1. A successfully assembled vacuum system that is well sealed and capable of a very deep vacuum below 10e-4 torr.
2. A fully variable high voltage power supply with a "hot" negative polarity of at least 30,000 volts.
3. A deuterium gas supply system with a micro-metering control set up to admit the rare gas against a running vacuum pumping system.
4. Electronic vacuum gauging on the roughing vacuum line and the fusor chamber.
5. Neutron detection gear that will satisfy critical observers that you are producing fusion.
6. Finally the easy part. - A fusion reactor vessel that is fully sealed, with a high voltage grid system that will allow 30,000 volts or more to enter without failure or arcing to the grounded chamber.

Should you fail to fully meet any one of these 6 tasks, you will fail to do fusion. Any where along this tortured road you can wind up in a ditch that will prove a bridge too far.

If you tackle fusion and wish to be inducted into the neutron club, you must satisfy a critical audience of successful fusioneers already here. The reporting of your ultimate fusion effort must be reported in a specific manner. The instructions are located in this FAQ.


viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3134
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READ THE FAQs!!!



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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