Progress on my fusor

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Bruce Meagher
Posts: 148
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 11:25 pm
Real name: Bruce Meagher
Location: San Diego

Re: Progress on my fusor

Post by Bruce Meagher »

Have you tried removing the vanes (labeled 29 on the parts list) and retightened the bolts to see if they are the cause? Since the pump was working previously maybe you just reinstalled the vanes incorrectly.
MatthewL
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2017 7:13 pm
Real name: Matthew Lallinger
Location: Houston, Tx

Re: Progress on my fusor

Post by MatthewL »

The vanes did appear to be adding some to the resistance. It turns out that one of the vanes was in backwards. There is a groove on the first stage vanes that is supposed to face in the direction of rotation and one of the vanes was not. After fixing that problem, adding even more oil as lubrication, and removing the cam from the shaft all of the resistance disappeared. When the cam is on the shaft, it causes the issue that I had talked about that is increased resistance in only in one place as the shaft is turned. With the cam it is only this intermittent resistance. I believe that I either need to flip the cam around in the cam housing (or oil pump) or I need to prime the pump as per the manual's instructions by placing my finger over the outlet of the pump for a few seconds intermittently to help increase internal pressure thus pushing more oil into the oil pump. I will try those things this weekend. If I still can't get the pump to pump correctly I do have a backup plan for my pump it is a Sargent Welch "Sarvac 8804" pump which I bought brand new with an oil mist filter and a foreline oil trap for a great deal on Ebay. The only downside of the pump is that it is small and can only pump at .9 CFM and will overheat if on for extensive periods of time, but it is two stage.
Also Edward's finally shipped me my dipstick and oil drain plug for my diffstack.
IMG_1031.JPG
They aren't what I had expected as they do not have threads. Do any Edward's Diffstack owners know if this is supposed to have another part with it? Possibly a threaded part that goes over it to hold them in place. I do have my lathe now so I luckily will be able to machine a threaded part to hold them in place if necessary.

Thanks,
-Matthew
John Futter
Posts: 1848
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:29 pm
Real name: John Futter
Contact:

Re: Progress on my fusor

Post by John Futter »

Yep a knurled hollow nut that clamps down on that larger diameter bit
MatthewL
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2017 7:13 pm
Real name: Matthew Lallinger
Location: Houston, Tx

Re: Progress on my fusor

Post by MatthewL »

I have a lot of extra time because there will be no school until Tuesday (due to Hurricane Harvey). I spent some of that time working on my first lathe project that was not just practice. I turned two of the hollow nuts for my diffstack oil drain and dipstick and they helped very slightly for any very minimal leaking I already had. I also got a chance to do a first test of the diffstack which was successful. I pumped down my system to the point where my pirani gauge was bottomed out (well bellow 1 micron). Because I still can't get my EDM12 to work properly I had to use my Welch Sarvac 8804 pump which worked fine. I have a hot cathode ion gauge but it doesn't seem to work. I have to do some testing to see where the problem is exactly, but from the minimal testing I have done so far I believe it is only the LCD screen on the controller which won't turn on, so it should hopefully be an easy fix. Now that I have my vacuum system working I should be able to achieve real fusion after I complete only a few minor things with other parts of the system. I should hopefully be posting on my working fusion reactor in the next couple of days, if no other problems arise.
I appreciate all of the help I have gotten on this thread.

Regards,
-Matthew
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