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As an intern (for steve) I tend to get all the sucky jobs, sweeping floors on fridays, welding frames,gutting and re-designing the internals of an EDM, designing and building a hydrogen glow brazing rig that might use a diffusion pump salvaged from a rubbish bin IF it works, fixing the pump if it doesn't work, ask Instructables for help on the pump, etc. Wait, most of those are pretty fun and everyone else sweeps on fridays too, hmm, and yet I'm an "intern".
Anyway, I need the physics peoples help. I have a diffusion pump that steve found in a dumpster somewhere. No idea how well it works or even if it works at all, I need to know how to hook it up to see if it even runs and then I can proceed with more science!
And drudgery, given that I'm a lowly intern who nobody listens to, although there was this one time I saved us and perhaps even made us a bunch of money when I was browsing ebay....
Anyway, I need the physics peoples help. I have a diffusion pump that steve found in a dumpster somewhere. No idea how well it works or even if it works at all, I need to know how to hook it up to see if it even runs and then I can proceed with more science!
And drudgery, given that I'm a lowly intern who nobody listens to, although there was this one time I saved us and perhaps even made us a bunch of money when I was browsing ebay....
It had a silicone oil in it already and since steve builds viscometers for a living, there wouldn't be any issues with oils. Roughing pump was available id it was plenty sucky enough, so no problems there. Power and water were taken care of (we were just going to stick it up to a water tap and a drain when it was running, saves us a pump and heatsink setup). Valves all work, gauges available, and manual/computer control. The only thing I was having trouble with were the gauges, never did figure them out.
It seemed fairly straightforward to do really. Would have gotten further if we didn't bust that tool whilst milling the plate, in the end that was my biggest holdup.
Now, if I do a similar thing over here, I will likely face those issues and more seeing as I was to do electron deposition of Niobium. I *can* do it with titanium, but having an exotic metal thrown in there just sounds cooler, but also because Nb is so damn hard to work with.
and if you havent figured it out yet, the "magnetic switch" seems to me to be a solenoid that pulls a valve or something, i'd love to be of more help but i honestly have no clue on how a diffusion pump works..
In my case I'm essentially making a hydrogen lightbulb to melt solder with.
Well done.
Steve
*gasp* acknowledgement!
And drudgery, given that I'm a lowly intern who nobody listens to,
Who said that ?