While having nothing to do with “Fine Homebuilding,” I thought some might find these pictures of interest. We’ve been working on this for a long time and now it is nearly ready to ship. It is the support frame for an experimental fusion reactor that is being built at Auburn University.
Relevant links are:
http://www.physics.auburn.edu/~plasma/fusion/
Jon
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Replies
WOW..that is just like MINE...
I think Home Depot has got 'em on sale right now.
Very nice, it would be right at home as a Star Trek prop.
-- J.S.
I think I saw something similar out near Roswell, NM
Looks like a whole bunch of Tax Dollars at work.
Bet Junkhound has a couple of those somewhere out in his scrap pile?
Joe H
Joe:
I wish! I Don't even have an old Tokamak!
I do have a large commercial aircraft landing gear strut in the junk pile though, almost, but not quite, as impressive.
Jon, you can't fool us, thats the ball from new years eve in time square, NY.
So how did you get your hands on it?
Seriously Jon,
You work on some very impressive things, I've seen other pictures you've posted in the past. Keep them coming.
PJE
Edited 1/15/2004 10:14:38 PM ET by CarpenterPJE
I think that's the inspiration for Stan Foster's next set of stairs...
Jon Blakemore
It looks like a cyborg donut, or to quote Homer J. Simson, "Mmmmm...nuclear donut."
Seriously, that is some fancy casting and machine work. And it really does look prety darn cool....that's not a mistake, it's rustic
Homer J. Simson, "Mmmmm...nuclear donut."
Jeff, I just about blew my coffee out nose with that one!!
In the photo you can see that the high speed framis valve is installed backwards.
It will never work.
Au contraire mon ami!
When the hyperperambulated fusion coagulation reaches the freem rate of the subatomic mass coefficient relating to the critical neutron generational constan for the plasma coil retardation rate, then the framis valve will become a stabilizing influence on the ionization grid with a backflow rate approaching the speed of light in mercury filled environment, thus becoming superflously redundant and quasigeometrically non-self limiting.
So there :PMr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
Did you lift that paragraph out of your doctoral thesis?
If you didn't, you should have....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Yeah You can put just about anything in them.
No one ever reads them.
Especially the professors!!Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
the computers do read them.
the professor just fed it into a computer and the computers check to see if it was copied from the net or some other know sorce. I should be the professor's teaching aids or intern fed it into the computers.
"Seriously, that is some fancy casting and machine work."
Jeff,
And it was all done on a 3-axis CNC! I wish I could take credit for the machine work, but my role on the project was limited to pattern work and some "punch list" type stuff. The guy who did the machining is one of the best tool makers/machinists I know of, Mark S. (see attached pic)
The Mountain Dew makes sense, but the wood clamp is an odd anachronysm. It must have been from the early days, when nuclear reactor parts were glued up from several carved tree stumps....that's not a mistake, it's rustic
"but the wood clamp is an odd anachronism."
Jeff,
Actually, just an example of our guys being able to efficiently think "on the fly."
The tolerances for the unit were quite close. As the unit was being assembled for the first time, the plates that electrically isolate each section were a bit of a tight fit (easily explained by temperature fluctuations at the facility). We could have designed a "reactor stretcher," but Mark looked around, spied an old style wood clamp, and used it in reverse against the webbing to create the extra couple of thousandths clearance needed to get the insulating plates in to fit.
Jon
I love it. High-end machined reactor component corrected by old wood clamp lying around.
It's true. You can never have enough clamps!...that's not a mistake, it's rustic
It's true. You can never have enough clamps!
That's what the surgeon said, when he lost a few in a patient..wonder what would happen if it wound up in that gizmo?..."opps..heres the problem, we had a Joergenson stuck in the particle accelerometer"...
Does it burn wood or coal?
no wood, no coal...only lead magnates...
Go Stab yourself Ya Putz! Ya think I Parked here?
Jon I hope you don't mind....
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
Gee, Ya'd think a rocket surgeon could resize a pic..sheesh.
I think fusion will be the energy of the future. How are the experiments coming along? Any chance of a working fusion reactor in our lifetimes?
jon... great stuff...
at thte risk of asking a question that may have already been asked...... how did you build the pattern ? what was the medium ?Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
C'mon...we all know ....PLAY-DOH..
"how did you build the pattern ? what was the medium ?"
Mike,
All CNC machined out of Honduras Mahogany.
Jon
"I think fusion will be the energy of the future. How are the experiments coming along"
Shep,
It is my understanding that the stellarator research is so that we can figure out why particles behave the way they do at very high energy levels. So far each one built is doing it's job, and each leads the way for the next. Albeit slow, but steady progress.
Jon
That will feel right at home in my living room.
What alloy is it made of?
"What alloy is it made of?"
Tom,
Not positive, but reasonably confident 356-T6.
Jon
Pretty cool stuff. Must be fun working on stuff like that.
So how's married life treatin' ya?
I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was Always
"So how's married life treatin' ya?"
Boss,
No different than before 'cept that DW now reminds me that everything I own is now half her's, and Her dream in life was not to own half of a milling machine, even if I got a good deal on it. Then again, I personally didn't want to ever own a 1/2 stake in 100 PAIRS OF SHOES!
Jon
Edited 1/16/2004 9:04:39 PM ET by WorkshopJon
Then again, I personally didn't want to ever own a 1/2 stake in 100 PAIRS OF SHOES!
yeah you'd probably only be allowed only the left ones LOL!!!
Thats gona need a whole lot of bondo, seriously though that would make a very cool coffe table!
so what's the spiral for?
is it having a copper winding for an electromagnet?
unless you're south of the equator or in a parallel universe- in which case everything is reversed and all bets are off.
m
Great post, I can instantly visualize the Maxwell equations that created the curves (I WISH <G>)
Was at Lukas machine in Seattle a few months ago and saw similar they were machining for LLL, neat stuff.
Went thru the General Atomics facility in San Diego awhile back, like you show, lots of keen stuff.
Only know a few people at Auburn these days, mostly power electronics people.