I'm an engineering student currently in undergrad, who has been interested in fusion for the better part of 7 years, and for the past 5 or 6 years now, I have been scrounging for parts whenever available with the goal of a zero dollar fusion reactor.
I've taken on many projects in the past, spanning mechanical design, high voltage, programming, and robotics to name a few, where I've learned many of the skills needed to take on fusion. I've also been lurking on this forum for over 2 years (nearing 2 years since I created this account also), reading frequently through the posts, faqs, and absorbing as much information as I can, as well as purchasing and reading a number of books recommended by Richard Hull.
I've finally gotten the bulk of parts necessary for assembling a reactor, and thus far, have managed to get all of them at no cost by carefully watching university dumpsters, and picking up free items from classifieds within my province.
As of right now, I have:
- 2 diffusion pumps (I was going to use the first; an air cooled with LN cold trap, but happened upon an edwards diffstak with watercooled baffle later on)
- Countless kf and cf vacuum fittings, bellows, etc of which I will be using a 6 way 2.75" cf as my fusion chamber
- Multiple thermocouple vacuum gauges and controllers
- a welch roughing pump
- a few pirani and penning gauges for measuring high vacuum
- Many bellows and leak valves
- a hoard of electronics parts, gauges, variacs, etc; everything needed and much more
- lead sheets and bricks
- a small amount of deuterium oxide, although I may bite the bullet and buy a lecture bottle of gas since as a consumable I feel it may not count against my $0 goal (still undecided)
- Most recently, I finally found an orthodontist offering an old xray for free, and after scrapping the few hundred pounds of structural metal (they wanted the whole thing gone) for gas money, I was left with 3 incredibly heavy oil potted xray transformers rated to 110kv, and from the very early 80s which I believe will be suitable for fusion (and I will have 2 spares)
So far I have still not spent a single dollar on these parts, and credit that both to perseverance over many years and a watchful eye, but also to being both incredibly lucky, and later on, having a university that values space over keeping old equipment around "in case".
I still have much to learn and do, however I feel that the milestone of having all major components warrants my introductory post, as from this point on I believe I will be fairly active on the forum.
Robert
