[Paper] My Fusor Experience

[Jeff Robertson]

Hey guys,

So I've been working on a fusor project for the better part of 2012, and it's come along rather nicely. In May I completed my last academic semester, and at the beginning of the semester I petitioned to get credit for this project as an independent study. Part of the agreement for this is that I would write two papers - one covering the theory behind all aspects of IEC fusion and the fusor, and another documenting my efforts on the fusor. The former paper is somewhat fluffed up (academia loves fluffed up papers) and is probably more detail than anyone here would want to see (it's around 35 pages), but if anyone is interested feel free to ask. It covers everything from the theory behind IEC fusion to how diodes and transformers work. I thought the latter paper would be useful to some of the newer people here, so I decided to share it with you guys.

The paper's around 15 pages, but it goes into excruciating detail about my fusor setup and design. This paper only covers my vacuum system, pressure gauging system, and chamber setup. I'm still working out the kinks in my power supply and have not introduced a deuterium feedthrough yet, so I didn't touch on these in the paper. Still, when I first started assembling parts for my fusor, the vacuum system was the most cumbersome part and was the biggest timesink in this project for me. If someone had handed me a paper like this before I started working on this project, I would have saved a good couple months in the fusor "learning curve."

If any of the newer members are like me, and have tons of motivation but struggling to find the right resources to satiate their passion, I hope this can be of some use. If you're at the point where you want to make a fusor, know all the theory and the basic elements, but don't know where to start, then check out my paper. The first step of any fusor is creating a vacuum system. And who knows, maybe it'll be useful to some of the older members too.

Cheers,
Jeff

PS - Wasn't quite sure where something like this would go, so I figured I'd put it in fusor operation forum. Sorry if this is the wrong place.

Edit - For some reason the site isn't letting me upload the word file directly here, so I uploaded it to Scribd:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/100451067/MyFusor

[Richard Hull]

Thanks for sharing. Good info for the first timers. I hope you get good grades on the effort.

You might have been able to post you papers in the "files" forum and used a URL pointer to them here.

Richard Hull

[Dennis P Brown]

Cannot load to read - a MS word doc would be useful.

[John Taylor]

Thanks for the posting! This should be of value to anyone building or evne modifying a fusor.

[Richard Hester]

A suggestion would be to load papers and the like as a PDF. The reader is available for free, and the PDF format has become a defacto standard. Not everyone has MS Word or Powerpoint, or the latest version thereof.

[Brian_Gage]

A lot of PDF documents present a problem for those of us who are blind, using a screen reader. I've found a great number of PDF documents do not translate with Adobe Reader into something the screen reader can recognize. A sighted person might well be able to read the document, but the screen reader sees an empty document or blank page. Found this with the local amateur radio club, where the treasurer's report was scanned and mailed out as a JPG file, then converted into PDF by the club secretary. I could read nothing of the document.
Many web sites, like those relating to physics or radiation detectors, use PDF files that are just scanned JPG files converted to PDF and I can't read them. Word .DOC or the best, good old .TXT ASCII text files are always accessible for any blind user of any screen reader software. Ain't modern trends wonderful? One step forward, two slippery slope sliding steps backwards....

[Dennis P Brown]

My home computer can read it but not my work computer!

Only glanced through but two things stood out:

1) See that you used very many adapter types - was this for completeness of most types out there (even if over kill for the application) or just bad luck buying parts?

2) Your glass bell jar has no explosion shield - OK for your own work but not a good idea as a general paper for others to read and copy for a fusor.

Hope to read later but issue number two has to be flagged and a strong warning given so people do not think that is a safe/proper system without the blast shield (you did point out it isn't safe but offered no input on how to improve the situation for a glass bell jar.)

A few more comments:

Overall, a good paper. A few sections are really excellent.

There are two major issues - no introduction that gives the reader some background for this paper and a few paragraphs on what you are trying to build - like the basic logic of the vacuum system in your first figure.

Rather, the reader starts at a vacuum connector even if they have no experience in vacuum systems - might be an issue for people who do not use these systems.

In a similar manner, a short intro to each section would help, as well. Also, the paper needs some editing by an outsider (we all benefit from that!)

A section on the power supply you are or will be using for the fusor would be helpful and some type of final conclusion to tie all of it up. Maybe a few words on were you want to go with the project (like using the deuterium for fusion experiments.)

Again, good work and a very logical and detailed paper on building a fusor including issues of construction. I see a good technical writer that is getting close to be able to publish.

Best of luck!

[Daniel Aaron]

Where's the other paper?

Also, I had found a thread by you regarding the usage of bell jars -- a vacuum chamber I intend to use myself. I was on the verge of messaging you and inquiring about its success when I saw this thread. I haven't read the construction paper entirely yet, and would be more than happy to read the theory paper.

A question though -- how was the baseplate "machined" to fit these instruments? Doesn't that carry the risk of unseen faults in the plate?

[Jeff Robertson]

Hey Daniel,

I have the other paper on the hard drive of a computer that died shortly after completing this project. I still plan on salvaging most of the stuff on the hard drive, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. The other paper was mostly fluffed up theory that went into more detail than you would ever want to know - the kind of stuff academia loves. I'll definitely share it as soon as I can recover it from my broken computer, hah.

On the bottom of my baseplate I had two conflat flanges attached - one for the vacuum system and one for the HV feedthrough. A CF flange relies on using screws and nuts to compress it to another flange. What I did was carefully measured and marked where the "screw holes" on the CF flanges overlapped on the baseplate, and then drilled holes of appropriate size partially through the plate (being very careful not to go all the way through!). I then manually threaded them with a tap. Next I placed the flange over the freshly-drilled holes, inserted screws into the threaded slots, and then finally a nut over each screw to compress the CF flange to the plate.

As for the risks, I think my plate was half an inch thick with the threaded holes going only 1/4" through. This left a quarter inch of steel between the vacuum and atmospheric pressure, which is more than enough to withstand any abuse (with a hefty safety margin).