Kimball Spheres

[Wilfried Heil]

These look like the luxury version of a custom designed Fusor chamber. They are also luxury priced. Maybe they can be had used, I´ve seen one go on Ebay for about $ 600 a while ago.

One aspect is that they are some 20 mm thick, so that they can offer integral X-ray shielding.

Has anyone tried these? Where could they possibly be obtained as surplus?


> www.kimphys.com/mcf_vacuum_fittings/Cat ... r_Cube.pdf

[SteveHansen]

Chuck Crawford, pres. of Kimball, is a genius when it comes to finely machined UHV hardware. In your picture of the sphere, the grooves are mounting slots for a line of electron and ion optic components. You can build a complete ion source by just snapping the correct parts in place. Oh, yeah, you need a good helping of cash.

Kimball is a short drive from where I live and I've visited his shop a number of times (it's an old farmhouse in the middle of an apple orchard). Great guy and a bit of a maverick. He helped get me established in the vacuum industry.

[Wilfried Heil]

Thanks for the note on Kimball, I´ve just contacted them. I think these spheres would be very useful for an experimental chamber, because of the easy access from all sides. I also like the "grabber groove" feature.

Maybe the prototype of the spherical cube was a pumpkin or an apple once?

[Captain_Proton]

Looks kinda' like Farsworth's grid...

[Wilfried Heil]

Interesting, looks like part of an electrostatic lens and a small fusor chamber by itself. If you have more photos of this design, could you perhaps post some in the "Image du Jour"?