Snip...

Thanks Ken

If ya look at that big plate on the mill, I got the top flange and
the bottom out of it! I used a 1/8 endmill to cut through the plate.
I'm going to check Yarde metals to look for a drop for the lid, 20
inches is too small as the flange is 24 inch dia. But many thanks
for the offer.

Ah bargaining, I hide my face in shame for the diffusion pump I
bought. In the last minute it went from $200 to $400, but it is
unused and only holds 100ml so I can afford the Santovac5 oil for it.

I may be persuaded to make other chambers, but lets see how many
leaks this one has! Not to jinx myself, but the welds were going
fine as far as I could tell. The tough part is tieing into the
flange or the bottom.

Nice work on the metal... I should get you to make me an 18 inch
chamber... You should also check out the ATM_FREE Group. We are
getting rolling pretty well now with 350 ATM members.

Do you need a baseplate for that one you're making? I have one

shown

on the ATM_FREE group main page and in the photo section that I

can

let go if you need one. It's 20 inch OD and needs the flange

welded

on for the valve to attach to but that is available also. I

hesitate

to tell you how much I paid for the flange, you'll lose all

respect

for my bargaining ability.

Ken

So much to get rid of... (or move)

--- In VacuumX@..., "paladinironworks" <PIW@s...> wrote:

There is a crapy photo of the tester I made. I wanted to share the
cam idea that rocks the knife edge in and out. It is on the right
side and can raise and lower about 3/16 of an inch, It works very
well. Later I'll put in better pics.

Les

Les...

Nice work on the metal... I should get you to make me an 18 inch
chamber... You should also check out the ATM_FREE Group. We are
getting rolling pretty well now with 350 ATM members.

Do you need a baseplate for that one you're making? I have one shown
on the ATM_FREE group main page and in the photo section that I can
let go if you need one. It's 20 inch OD and needs the flange welded
on for the valve to attach to but that is available also. I hesitate
to tell you how much I paid for the flange, you'll lose all respect
for my bargaining ability.

Ken

So much to get rid of... (or move)

There is a crapy photo of the tester I made. I wanted to share the
cam idea that rocks the knife edge in and out. It is on the right
side and can raise and lower about 3/16 of an inch, It works very
well. Later I'll put in better pics.

Les

First off, welcome Ron [now I'm not the new guy :)]

I won a diffusion pump on ebay, but it is not here yet. It holds
100ml so I will put Santovac 5 oil in it. That 100ml of oil costs
about $140 but should give little to no back streaming with no
baffle, cold cap, or cold trap.

Yesterday I welded up the sides of my chamber, and the top ring. It
is half inch plate, about 18 inches wide and 17 tall. After I get
the pump I'll machine the port for it and weld on the bottom. Then
mill the top flange flat and mill the Oring groove. Then I get to
make 7 covers for the ports. Why so many ports? It is easyer to make
the port in each side piece before it was welded together, so I'll
just block off unused ones. I plan on two windows and a power feed
through port. Later I may use the chamber for a glove box to weld
titanum in an argon atmosphere, so there goes two more ports for
gloves. I'll post pics of it now.

Ken... look on the bright side, moving gets rid of stuff ya dont
need.

Les

--- In VacuumX@..., "Ron" <ron_white@s...> wrote:

Hi gang
Hi to Ken / James / Les
Congrats to Ken

I just found your group I haven't started to put together a vacuum
system yet but it is on my list and I'm collecting info.
I am an ATM guy I have ground polished and destroyed 2 mirrors a

12"

and a 16" I purchased both at the same time from ASM they were
supposed to be ceramic low expansion and all of that and the price
was great. Both were laminated from ?" thick pieces of black

glass.

the 12 " I ground ok but it was astigmatic so I reground it and was
polishing on a machine, the power went out in my shop and the

mirror

stuck to the tool and when the power came back on $$%^&*( oh

well.

When I saw how the glass was laminated together I know why it kept
bending on me. When I ground the 16 "F4 I didn't have any problem
with astigmatism but I ground thru the first layer of ?" glass

there

were a lot of voids in this blank from not being fused properly so

it

was an ugly mirror. I had a lot of problems with scratches I think
from the pieces of glass chipping up from the void areas. When I
finally got the scratches under control I couldn't repair a bad

zone

at the transition area between the laminations it was as if the

glass

bond area had stress or was harder than the surrounding glass.
Because the glass was black I couldn't check it with polarized light

The best I got to was 1/3 PV. Would have been 1/8 PV if I blacked
out a big doughnut in the bad zone area
After way to many hours of playing with this blank I decided to

cut

my losses. I threw out the glass so I wouldn't be tempted to play

any

more.

You should relate this tale to the guys at the ATM List
(atm@...) and the ATM_FREE group on Yahoo also. I think you
must have received some of Andre's early glass. There were reports
that he's improved over time...

I just finished building a furnace so I can fuse my own glass

blank.

The furnace cost me about the same as a good 20"blank. I fired it

up

yesterday for the first time. I'm waiting for a controller to come

in

for it.

Sounds like fun...

The next projects will be:
A trepan setup to cut glass disks.
A new grinding machine,

See my web page for ideas ( )

An interferometer the testing is almost done I need to make a 20 "
Plano mirror and a 4" spherical un coated f2 reference a beam
splitter and all of the hardware to hold it all together.

A box, a piece of window glass at 45 degrees, a green filter and
lightsource if you are going to be doing contact testing.

And then a vacuum setup.
Oh yea, let's not forget an awesome telescope:

Later
Ron

PS Ken do you know how I could do a 50% transmission silver
coating for the beam splitter.

James Lerch is the Silvering expert... Why size does it need to be? I
have a few half coated flat mirrors from a supermarket scanner about
2x4 inches or thereabouts.

Ken Hunter

Hi gang
Hi to Ken / James / Les
Congrats to Ken

I just found your group I haven't started to put together a vacuum
system yet but it is on my list and I'm collecting info.
I am an ATM guy I have ground polished and destroyed 2 mirrors a 12"
and a 16" I purchased both at the same time from ASM they were
supposed to be ceramic low expansion and all of that and the price
was great. Both were laminated from ?" thick pieces of black glass.
the 12 " I ground ok but it was astigmatic so I reground it and was
polishing on a machine, the power went out in my shop and the mirror
stuck to the tool and when the power came back on $$%^&*( oh well.
When I saw how the glass was laminated together I know why it kept
bending on me. When I ground the 16 "F4 I didn't have any problem
with astigmatism but I ground thru the first layer of ?" glass there
were a lot of voids in this blank from not being fused properly so it
was an ugly mirror. I had a lot of problems with scratches I think
from the pieces of glass chipping up from the void areas. When I
finally got the scratches under control I couldn't repair a bad zone
at the transition area between the laminations it was as if the glass
bond area had stress or was harder than the surrounding glass.
Because the glass was black I couldn't check it with polarized light

The best I got to was 1/3 PV. Would have been 1/8 PV if I blacked
out a big doughnut in the bad zone area
After way to many hours of playing with this blank I decided to cut
my losses. I threw out the glass so I wouldn't be tempted to play any
more.

I just finished building a furnace so I can fuse my own glass blank.
The furnace cost me about the same as a good 20"blank. I fired it up
yesterday for the first time. I'm waiting for a controller to come in
for it.

The next projects will be:
A trepan setup to cut glass disks.
A new grinding machine,
An interferometer the testing is almost done I need to make a 20 "
Plano mirror and a 4" spherical un coated f2 reference a beam
splitter and all of the hardware to hold it all together.
And then a vacuum setup.
Oh yea, let's not forget an awesome telescope:

Later
Ron

PS Ken do you know how I could do a 50% transmission silver
coating for the beam splitter.

Jmes,

You are dead RIGHT on the moving sucks thing!

A Turbo Pump controller shouldn't be real difficult to come up with,
I see them on ebay all the time. They go for around $100 on the
auctions I've seen. Don't think you could build one for that.

I managed to luck out and get the controller and all the other
electronics for the vacuum station I'm going to rebuild in Texas.
Even got the computer and interfaces but probably won't use them as I
like to throw the switches and crank the dials...

I still have a barn full of stuff to either sell, trade, give away or
move in the next few weeks... don't know where to start first.

Keep banging away on that program, it'll make you famous.

Ken Hunter





--- In VacuumX@..., "James Lerch" <jlerch1@t...> wrote:

Congrats Ken!

While your away, Think about ideas on how to build a Turbo

Molecular Pump CONTROLLER from scratch :)

One of the guys in our ATM lab won a turbo pump of Ebay. Looks in

good shape but he didn't realize it would need a controller.

Of course I haven't a clue of the manufacturer but I'll know soon

enough, and was just kinda hoping that TP pump controllers might have
some 'Standard' interface (long shot for sure!)

Again Congrats (and sorry for the need to move, as moving sucks!

IMHO)

Take Care,
James Lerch
(My telescope construction,testing, and

coating site)

----- Original Message -----
From: Ken Hunter
To: VacuumX@...
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2003 7:19 PM
Subject: [VacuumX] NEWS...


Hi Gang,

It's now official...

I have been selected to be the new Electronis Systems Analyst

(ESA)

at the National Weather Service Office in Amarillo, Texas.

My report date is 5 May but Rose and I will probably be on the

road

for a few days prior to that and unavailable (not that you'd miss

me).

If I seem scarce in the next few weeks, it's got to do with the

move

and finishing up some projects that have been neglected before

the

movers show up. Tons of stuff to do...

Ken Hunter




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To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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开云体育

Hi Gang,

It's now official...

I have been selected to be the new Electronis Systems Analyst (ESA)
at the National Weather Service Office in Amarillo, Texas.

My report date is 5 May but Rose and I will probably be on the road
for a few days prior to that and unavailable (not that you'd miss me).
If I seem scarce in the next few weeks, it's got to do with the move
and finishing up some projects that have been neglected before the
movers show up. Tons of stuff to do...

Ken Hunter

Thanks Ken
I live in sunny Newport News VA. 23606
Les


--- In VacuumX@..., "Ken Hunter" <atm_ken_hunter@y...>
wrote:

Hi Les,

Welcome to the Group... Nice to see another smiling face with a
project. Don't forget to post photo's and comments as you proceed.
Where are you located? I have some Diff pumps laying in the barn
being stored for now... Maybe we can get you going?

Ken Hunter

--big snip--

Hi Les,

Welcome to the Group... Nice to see another smiling face with a
project. Don't forget to post photo's and comments as you proceed.
Where are you located? I have some Diff pumps laying in the barn
being stored for now... Maybe we can get you going?

Ken Hunter


--- In VacuumX@..., "paladinironworks" <PIW@s...> wrote:

I just found this group as I was looking for info on vacuum stuff.

I am a machinist that now owns his own shop. I like to make things,
and my mirror needs recoating so...Hmm guess I'll make a chamber!

I'm going to weld up an eight sided chamber out of 1/2 inch alum.
plate. It will be around 20 inches across and 12 to 20 high.

Check out yarde metals drop zone for good prices on metal.
www.yarde.com

As for the cold trap, I have an old window unit that stoped cooling.
I brazed on a valve to fill it, R22 was the refridgerant, propane

is

a drop in replacement so thats what I used. It is still low on
propane, but I saw -31F on the cold side with the blower off. Max
would be -41F, after that propane makes a vacuum. If you want to
replace R21 use 80 percent propane and 20 percent isobutane.

I have a rough pump and a gauge, but lack a oil diffusion pump
still, if you guys have any leads I'll check them out.

As for feed thru's will spark plugs work? How many amps can they
pass?

I also plan on trying to cast mirror blanks with a honeycomb back.
Thats a big project so well see how it goes. To support that

project

I want to make grinding and polishing machines...like I said I like
to make things :)

Take care

Les

I just found this group as I was looking for info on vacuum stuff.

I am a machinist that now owns his own shop. I like to make things,
and my mirror needs recoating so...Hmm guess I'll make a chamber!

I'm going to weld up an eight sided chamber out of 1/2 inch alum.
plate. It will be around 20 inches across and 12 to 20 high.

Check out yarde metals drop zone for good prices on metal.
www.yarde.com

As for the cold trap, I have an old window unit that stoped cooling.
I brazed on a valve to fill it, R22 was the refridgerant, propane is
a drop in replacement so thats what I used. It is still low on
propane, but I saw -31F on the cold side with the blower off. Max
would be -41F, after that propane makes a vacuum. If you want to
replace R21 use 80 percent propane and 20 percent isobutane.

I have a rough pump and a gauge, but lack a oil diffusion pump
still, if you guys have any leads I'll check them out.

As for feed thru's will spark plugs work? How many amps can they
pass?

I also plan on trying to cast mirror blanks with a honeycomb back.
Thats a big project so well see how it goes. To support that project
I want to make grinding and polishing machines...like I said I like
to make things :)

Take care

Les

开云体育

On Sun, 2003-02-16 at 18:31, Ken Hunter wrote:

Hi Guys...

It's been 2 weeks since we have had any input to the Group, There are
2 new members this week but no message activity. Should we close down
the group or keep it open?

I'd like to see more activity here... I'd also like to see some
warmer weather so that I can get out to the garage and start work on
the vacuum station sitting out there. Last night we had whiteout
blizzard conditions just above zero F, snow drifts 4-5 feet filled up
the 75 foot driveway. Luckily we have a 4 wheel drive vehicle and
made it across the yard between drifts to the road when we needed to
get out this morning. I can post some photo's if anyone's interested.

Let's get something going here... I challenge each of you to invit
ONE other person to join the Group and get them to participate. I
know there is interest out there and I'd like to see this become a
useful place to meet and discuss various things about your pet
projects.

If we don't have any improvement in a couple of weeks I'll close the
Group down. No sense writing this down for myself, I don't need to
compile a journal for others to read.

Greetings

I would suggest not!!

This hobby (or should I say subset of a subset of a subset of a hobby
(vacuum coating from mirror pushing from ATM)) is not necessarily one
that will have a large following. If you need to have a large number of
people then the list will die if a few interested persons are allowed to
interact as time, ability and interest allow then I believe that it
should continue!!

My $0.02 Cdn (not much (grin!)).

Darald

Hi Guys...

It's been 2 weeks since we have had any input to the Group, There are
2 new members this week but no message activity. Should we close down
the group or keep it open?

I'd like to see more activity here... I'd also like to see some
warmer weather so that I can get out to the garage and start work on
the vacuum station sitting out there. Last night we had whiteout
blizzard conditions just above zero F, snow drifts 4-5 feet filled up
the 75 foot driveway. Luckily we have a 4 wheel drive vehicle and
made it across the yard between drifts to the road when we needed to
get out this morning. I can post some photo's if anyone's interested.

Let's get something going here... I challenge each of you to invit
ONE other person to join the Group and get them to participate. I
know there is interest out there and I'd like to see this become a
useful place to meet and discuss various things about your pet
projects.

If we don't have any improvement in a couple of weeks I'll close the
Group down. No sense writing this down for myself, I don't need to
compile a journal for others to read.

OK, now get typing!

Ken Hunter

I have NOT tried these yet! I can't see any reason they wouldn't work
if you used some good vacuum grease... other than a bit of out-
gassing of the rubber but with a small tank such as yours and a good
pump plus the requirement of only a modest vacuum I think they should
work great.

This illustrates one reason I started this GROUP... To have a place
to exchange ideas.

Ken

--- In VacuumX@..., "James Lerch" <jlerch1@t...> wrote:

Ken,

Wish I had heard of those feed-thrus a few month's ago :) Would

have saved a ton of work!

Take Care,
James Lerch
(My telescope construction,testing, and

coating site)

----- Original Message -----
From: Ken Hunter <atm_ken_hunter@y...>
To: VacuumX@...
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 11:14 AM
Subject: [VacuumX] Feed-thru's ^


Changed the Group photo so you wouldn't have to chase down the

photo

of the Feed-Thru idea I have...

If you have any photo's that you would like to submit to the

Group,

please do. I'll rotate all submitted photo's through the Group's

home

page as time permits.

Ken Hunter



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ADVERTISEMENT




To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
VacuumX-unsubscribe@...



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开云体育

Changed the Group photo so you wouldn't have to chase down the photo
of the Feed-Thru idea I have...

If you have any photo's that you would like to submit to the Group,
please do. I'll rotate all submitted photo's through the Group's home
page as time permits.

Ken Hunter

James,

I've added a photo to my folder that might be what you are asking
for. It's a common item found at hardware stores and is called
a "wellnut". I imagine it would work like the hole plug at the bottom
of a small boat. You drill the hole, put in the wellnut, insert the
bolt and tighten. The rubber compressess and tightens against the
sholder on the bolt and the sides of the hole. The bolt becomes the
conductor. It's available in various sizes.

Ken Hunter

--- In VacuumX@..., "James Lerch" <jlerch1@t...> wrote:

To implement such a wiring nightmare might be interesting, but I'm

wondering

if I might be able to mass produce some Ceramic electric pass

throughs.

Something that would just require drilling a hole in the chamber,

then drop

the pass thru in, and seal with an O-ring.. (still working out the

details

:) Anyone ever seen anything like this?

James,

In my photo folder I have added something you might want to consider.
It is a common item found at most any Hardware store and it's called
a "wellnut". They come in various sizes and I imagine that it could
be used as a cheap feedthrough for electrical purposes. I don't have
an assembled system yet to test the idea but you do! It would work
just like the botttom plug on a small boat. Put it into a hole, pass
a bolt through and tighten it up. The rubber will compress sealing
against the smooth shoulder on the bolt and the (hopefully smooth)
sides of the hole. The pass-through bolt becomes the conductor.

Ken Hunter

--- In VacuumX@..., "James Lerch" <jlerch1@t...> wrote:

To implement such a wiring nightmare might be interesting, but I'm

wondering

if I might be able to mass produce some Ceramic electric pass

throughs.

Something that would just require drilling a hole in the chamber,

then drop

the pass thru in, and seal with an O-ring.. (still working out the

details

:) Anyone ever seen anything like this?