Fusor grid-end fabrication
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 6:14 pmMay not have hit my accuracy goals this time - make a movie is a bit distracting - but I will soon. Of course, I'll be testing this soon enough and we'll see how well it does.
http://youtu.be/pHK9Pou1Buw
I made this vid as much to document how I do it so as to not forget myself, as to encourage advice from others on how I might do it better - or how someone else might do this. We are striving for sub .001" accuracy in grid wire spacing, or hole spacing around a circle assuming straight grid rods (not a good assumption yet, but we're working on that too). We have found that every halving of error quadruples out fusor efficiency and output, and have not yet run into a place where it flattens out or the other side of a peak so far, so this is the trend we're trying to follow until we can't anymore, or shouldn't.
Graphite, BTW, is extremely easy to machine. It just comes off as dust, is thermally conductive, easy on tools, but kind of messy. You can go really fast if you don't mind clouds of dust, but if you're mid speed and careful - it actually comes off the tools shiny, like a metal. I went slowly here mainly to keep the dust down, not for any other reason.
I didn't show some of the actual cutting/drilling operations as I needed to concentrate on "feel and feed" rather than saying the right words and keeping track of the camera.
Perhaps I should make another video of that part. Most might find it boring, but sometimes it really is the man more than the machine. I'm not sure how to teach those "feely" skills I seem to have, but a pic should be worth some words.
http://youtu.be/pHK9Pou1Buw
I made this vid as much to document how I do it so as to not forget myself, as to encourage advice from others on how I might do it better - or how someone else might do this. We are striving for sub .001" accuracy in grid wire spacing, or hole spacing around a circle assuming straight grid rods (not a good assumption yet, but we're working on that too). We have found that every halving of error quadruples out fusor efficiency and output, and have not yet run into a place where it flattens out or the other side of a peak so far, so this is the trend we're trying to follow until we can't anymore, or shouldn't.
Graphite, BTW, is extremely easy to machine. It just comes off as dust, is thermally conductive, easy on tools, but kind of messy. You can go really fast if you don't mind clouds of dust, but if you're mid speed and careful - it actually comes off the tools shiny, like a metal. I went slowly here mainly to keep the dust down, not for any other reason.
I didn't show some of the actual cutting/drilling operations as I needed to concentrate on "feel and feed" rather than saying the right words and keeping track of the camera.
Perhaps I should make another video of that part. Most might find it boring, but sometimes it really is the man more than the machine. I'm not sure how to teach those "feely" skills I seem to have, but a pic should be worth some words.
H/T Matt Derpson.