Month: December 2017

Vacuum cleaning

I realise we haven’t really gotten into the details of the diffusion pump on the blog so far (or any vacuum pumps at all to be honest), but since I needed to dismantle my pump for a service this week it seemed like a good time for a post on the subject of the care and feeding of these clever little machines.

While the pumps were down I also took the opportunity to change the oil in the mechanical pump so we’ll look at the steps involved in that job too.

We’ll have a quick look at how the pump system works and what it’s doing for us in the bombarding process and then run through the steps to clean and re-install a glass bodied pump in an existing set up, and a typical oil change procedure for a rotary pump.

I’ll quote details for the SVP standard flow pump that I use (also valid for Precision Neon Labs pumps), as well as my Vacuum Research rotary pump, but the procedures are largely the same for any glass diffusion pump or mechanical roughing pump used for neon work.

Continue reading “Vacuum cleaning” →

Standing in the way of control

A neon workshop contains a number of electrical systems to support the glass work and processing equipment: electricity powers the bombarder, air blowers, mechanical vacuum pump and the heating and cooling equipment for the diffusion pump, as well as a host of minor auxiliary loads such as gauges and the spark tester.

In this article we’ll take a look at some of the components that go into the controller for a neon workshop as well as some of the high-level design and practical considerations involved in putting together a working system. Continue reading “Standing in the way of control” →