Hello All

[Nicholas Gordon]

Greetings from Michigan, I've joined out of pure curiosity and plan to mainly lurk for the time being. That being said I am currently interested in creating a mass spectrometer and in the planning phase of such a build. As such I feel most of my time and contributions may be of use in the "Vacuums" section of these forums.
I'm very excited to get to know everyone and hope that in the future I can be of help to others on these forums.

-Nicholas Gordon

[Dennis P Brown]

Hello; such a device requires high vacuum. Fusor's tend to be lower level systems. Best of luck and I'm sure, relative to vacuum components and details, people here can help you.

[Nicholas Gordon]

Thanks for the welcome, I'm excited to get to work on such a vacuum system. In another post I revealed that I had recently come across an ion and oil diffusion pump that will hopefully facilitate great vacuum. The vacuum section of the forum has been a real wealth of knowledge.

[Dennis P Brown]

Ion pumps are really for sealed systems and are ideal for ultra-high vac systems - mass spectrometers generally don't require that level of vacuum (I use one and 10^-5 to 10^-6 torr is normal range.) A diffusion pump for high vacuum (above 10^-5 torr) requires a real cold trap. You'd be better off with a turbo but they are harder to find surplus and still tend to be expensive.

[Nicholas Gordon]

Very interesting, thanks for the tips. I'll keep the ion pump for now but keep my eyes peeled for a turbo molecular.