Intro

The purpose of this blog is to document the construction and research on my first Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor. In the coming weeks I will be putting up construction updates, as well as a series of posts on how a fusor works and the basic principles behind it. In my quest to build a fusor, I have been aided by many helpful sites on the internet, and I hope to be able to "give back" with this blog in addition to documenting my progress. Before I start, I would like to thank the folks at fusor.net, Andrew Seltzman of RTFTechnologies, and Raymond Jimenez for their helpful and detailed websites (and e-book!).

I would also like to thank Anatol Hoemke, our lab manager, for all of his help and patience with the construction of the project, Dr. Bulman for helping with the vacuum technology, and Dr. Phillips for loaning me his turbo-pump.

So far, I have been researching the idea of a fusor for about 6 months, and have been accumulating parts. A few weeks ago, I started to construct the fusor in the shop in the physics department at LMU. Right now, I am working on building a vacuum container, a high-voltage power supply, and a feed-through for the IEC grid. Shortly, I hope to have pictures and diagrams up.

**Disclaimer: If you are reading this and decide to build your own fusor, be careful! While this project can be safely constructed and operated, there are several aspects (particularly the high voltage power supply) that can be dangerous and potentially LETHAL in the wrong hands. If you do not have experience working with high voltages, radiation, machine tools, and high-vacuum equipment, find someone who does who can help you. While I encourage potential fusion experimenters to use the information contained in this blog as reference, I take no responsibility or liability for any damage caused by incorrect use of this information. Also, while I will try to be as accurate as possible, especially regarding safety issues, I make no guarantee that the information contained in this blog is completely accurate. Do your homework and check things out yourself. **