A 10" fusor!? Fusor V

[Richard Hull]

I am considering going ahead and completing fusor V. I have had a brand new set of 12" conflat rings (10" internal) and a pair of 10" hemispheres for about 4 years now.

I might as well go ahead and bite the bullet on what may well be my last fusor variant for some time. It will mean a rework of the acutal fusor bench as everything is sized for the 6" fusor IV.

I am tossed up between expanding on the current "fusor-on-a-deck" design or an aluminum lattice work for support of the system components.

The advantage to the larger size is in that you have more room to add and modify. I have learned a lot of lessons from the first 4 systems since cobbling up fusor I, back in 1997.

We will see. There will be no rush about it. I will update the progress in image du jour.

Richard Hull

[DaveC]

The modular extruded channels and blocks are nice, and easy to modify. Although, somewhere, you still need some flat surfaces.

A phrase comes to mind, from Feynmann's book "Surely, you're joking..." He was explaining the difference between experimental apparatus at Princeton, where he was at the time, and MIT. The MIT hardware was fully integrated, control panels, switches mounted, lights, meters.,,etc, neat and enclosed like a control room...think it was their cyclotron.

Princeton's on the other hand was a vast kluge of wires, tubing valves all over... big mess,... but... you could change anything anytime you got an idea. Feynmann had high praise for the kluge and a bit of scorn for the "MIT engineers" .

But none of us on this net is probably in any danger of being so neat and tidy, that all the science is supressed.

We'll be waiting eagerly for progress pictures.

Dave Cooper

[wayne]

The "mess" is the path to discovery while the neat project is the way to make
quality measurements.

wayne

[DaveC]

Well put, Wayne,


Dave Cooper

[Frank Sanns]

Well I can say my refrigerator is pretty full of discoveries theses days!

I think you will really like the larger fusor. It might take longer to pump it down but it acts as a plenum to stablize pressures and plamas. You will see long tendrils reaching nearly a foot in each direction and you will observe fine phenomenon that just can not be observed in the smaller fusors. My bet is you will eventually make an even bigger one someday. I for one, wish my 8" six way were (~9.5 outer grid) were double the diamter. It would make for some really interesting work.

Frank S.