Fusor Forums

Hi Rich, the bubbles are very clearly coming from the connection of the hemisphere to the ring, and the hemisphere's don't rock against one another when I press them together, so I think the most likely culprit at the moment is the weld itself.

Very happy to report that after a quick welding session, the welds appear to be sound. Visual inspection identified a couple of small holes, and just to be on the safe side I welded a few more spots that looked suspect. I repeated the soap and water test with the bicycle pump and no bubbles appeared! Next steps are to complete the program and pcb for my vacuum thermocouple gauge. I'll then be able to hook up my backing pump.

Nicolas
Excellent keep at it

Progress has been slower than I'd liked this summer. I'm still waiting on some parts to complete my thermocouple gauge sensor. The pandemic has slowed mail delivery considerably. In the meantime I've added some bits to the chamber and its starting to look operational. The mechanical backing pump works just fine but until I complete the vacuum gauge there's not much sense in pumping the chamber down. The vacuum line consists of two valves, a ball valve at the mechanical pump and a butterfly valve at the turbopump. In addition I have most of the components for the high voltage feedthrough either delivered or on order.

It is looking super professional and you have what it takes! You have shown it through your numerous reports as those baby steps were taken. This is something you will long remember and be proud of, not so much of the finished product, but of the struggle and effort. You have proved something to yourself about yourself.....That will last.

Oh, I am green with envy over that beautiful blue anodized lab build frame. WOW! In case you haven't noticed, I like blue around my fusor. I dare not think of what that frame and all the bits and pieces set you back.

Richard Hull

Up here in the great white north, shipping adds considerably to any sort of industrial components I've attempted to purchase. I got my stand from a company in montreal called Vention. They have a web setup for designing automation and machine tending applications for factories. A large component of that is obviously extruded aluminum frames. You can see my stand here https://vention.io/designs/70204. The price in canuck bucks was about $770, which in USD would probably be closer to $500 even. It's not cheap, but it's a good stand, was easy to use their web interface to design and the price was comparable to all the others I looked at.

Ouch!! I was looking at 1010 or 2020 extrusion hardware and I could duplicate your frame in normal un-anodized aluminum for about $200 as bits and pieces parts from Amazon with bits and pieces left over!

https://www.amazon.com/80-20-Inc-T-Slot ... B001F0F112

I would do this in a heartbeat if I was to make fusor VI..... should I live so long. All just screw driver or cap-head screw assembly. I already have some 1010 extrusion at the lab that I found at our local scrap yard but not quite enough to complete a full frame. So I might need about $60.00 worth of new extrusion and $50 or more worth of the special insert nuts and cap screws with some link fittings to build a frame.

Richard Hull