Building an Open Source Bussard Reactor

Point out news stories, on the net or in mainstream media, related to polywell fusion.

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MSimon
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Building an Open Source Bussard Reactor

Post by MSimon »

Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

Skipjack
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Post by Skipjack »

heheh, cool!
He even goes for the dodecahedron shape :)
Not that I think, he has a large chance of success (he admits that himself), but it is definitely an admireable endeavour.

drmike
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Post by drmike »

Looks like fun! I wonder how that plastic will hold up under vacuum, and just how he
intends to make a vacuum. But at least he's trying to build something!

spaccemonkey
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frustration

Post by spaccemonkey »

Honestly I'm half tempted to give this guy money to help him cover expenses... yes, he has no real hope of building anything that works (realistically, how many of us could afford the power supplies or vacuum chamber?) BUT he could actually give us some hard numbers. That is what is most lacking on this board. Without published data we end up with the sort of discussions that are currently occurring on the Theory forums where it is obvious that all we have are some computational models that are inadequate to answer the question of whether the wiffile ball can confine much of anything for useful timescales. Until we know that, and can back it up with numbers, we are operating on hope and faith.

Nanos
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Post by Nanos »

What kind of figures of money expenses wise did you have in mind ?

(Hundreds of dollars, thousands ?)

MSimon
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Post by MSimon »

Nanos wrote:What kind of figures of money expenses wise did you have in mind ?

(Hundreds of dollars, thousands ?)
Why not ask him? The comments there are open.

Simon
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

MSimon
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Superconductor tests

Post by MSimon »

Superconductor tests:

*

http://prometheusfusionperfection.wordp ... -extruder/

*

The guy has a lot of ambish.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

Nanos
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Post by Nanos »

> Why not ask him?

I was asking spaccemonkey!

Eg. I was asking spaccemonkey how much money he had in mind, whether it was hundreds or thousands of dollars. (Or even tens of thousands.)

JohnP
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Post by JohnP »

I am not understanding why he puts so much faith in the reprap machine. The stuff it can make is extremely limited by size, material, and tolerance.

MSimon
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Post by MSimon »

JohnP wrote:I am not understanding why he puts so much faith in the reprap machine. The stuff it can make is extremely limited by size, material, and tolerance.
Even if that is true the experience can be transferred to a milling machine or a lathe.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

spaccemonkey
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Post by spaccemonkey »

Nanos wrote:What kind of figures of money expenses wise did you have in mind ?

(Hundreds of dollars, thousands ?)
I was thinking that, if this person really intends to go the distance with this, that the power supplies alone where going to be quite expensive. Add to that the vacuum equipment and chamber, plus any instrumentation and it starts getting quite pricey. (So totals in the thousands, possibly more) Now if they published their results regularly, how much would you be willing to contribute? Would it be possible for this guy to set up a not for profit and accept micro payments? I'd only be able to throw down small donations, but those can add up.

Honestly, I'd like to see free release of experimental data on what is or is not happening in a reasonably well built test bed.

spaccemonkey
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Post by spaccemonkey »

MSimon wrote:
JohnP wrote:I am not understanding why he puts so much faith in the reprap machine. The stuff it can make is extremely limited by size, material, and tolerance.
<sarcasm>
True, but building your own prototyper is what all the cool kids are doing.
</sarcasm>

Also there is a convince factor involved in having the prototyper manufacture your items while you are at work, earning money to build more equipment.

JohnSmith
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Post by JohnSmith »

And come on, the reprap is just fun to play with. If it's useful, great, if not, so what? This is a hobby for most of us, no reason not to mix it up a bit.

spaccemonkey
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riprap

Post by spaccemonkey »

Ya, that's why it's on my list of things to do.

Back to the topic at hand, how small could you make a copper coiled truncated cube magrid and still get usefull data out of it. More to the point, would it be more economical to do so as a test bed?

FAMULUS
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reprap

Post by FAMULUS »

I think the reprap will be useful for making parts for the coil winder, and various jigs. I see it as a platform for computer controlled action in the physical space. Once you master the basics, you can reassemble the pieces to any end.

Also, it's a good warmup project.

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