Well, I
finally got all the gaskets and bolt fittings. Well, mostly. But I
did the first vacuum test tonight after getting home from work. To the
left is the chamber now complete - well, sans any electron or ion gun. The
red plastic is covering up the view ports so I don't scratch them. Just
click on the picture for a larger view.
If you look at the larger picture, you can tell that there are three bolts on the main 14.5" flange missing above the electrical feed through on the bottom hemisphere. Directly opposite, where the cold cathode ion gauge is attached, another three bolts are missing. I can't get the bolts in, due to the flange configuration - something that I thought would happen. I'll have to see if I can get some double threaded bolts so I can get these puppies bolted down firmly.
In
any event, the vacuum test went well. I got the chamber down to 2x10-6
torr. There were a few fits and starts as I tightened the zillion seals on
the chamber, but after everything tightened up it dropped like a stone. I
turned off the turbo and the pressure held for about 15 minutes before I had to
close down the shop for the night. The fore line pressure on the
roughing pump held at 1 millitorr. Very cool. I think this will do
quite nicely.
Now the real work will start - building ion guns, setting up the high voltage and gas lines and...
<heh>
Dr. Hildebrand,
If you are interested in teflon gaskets (UHV compatible, reusable and require much less force than copper) for conflat flanges, drop me an email. I have been making them for some years mainly for my own customers (I design and manufacture soft x-ray diffraction grating spectrometers).
Mike Hettrick
Hettrick Scientific
How much did that beautiful vac pump cost? And can you provide a reference to where the rest of us could buy one? How about those gaskets? ;-)
ur gay hahahahahahahahhaa
Yea, working with a fusion generator is SO GAY.