by Doug Coulter » Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:29 pm
I believe it's merely that it's more accurate than any other I've put in there, simple as that -- the trend is fairly well established on that one. As to the effect of the ceramic, unknown at the moment, and the obvious thing to do is try it both ways -- the design makes that easy (not by accident). The smaller overall size of this new one may be contributing something...but having not noticed huge differences with minor size changes so far, I doubt it's a big deal. I should make a couple more in different sizes to try as well, I suppose -- now that I have a good degreeing setup for the machine so I won't mess them up anymore - the raw material isn't real cheap here. Next time I order ceramics, I suppose I should try and find some that have larger ID so I can make composite ones the same size as the plain graphite ones. Lots more to do, and yeah, leaks are a pain, at least I have a way to find them quick. I'd never have guessed that last one -- it's been trouble free and therefore untouched for a long time, this is an unusual event. I may take the opportunity to rethink how I mount that on the tank, and alter where I let the gas in anyway, but it's just at a bad time to do a major tear-down and refit...For the moment, it's just going to be band-aids till the next bunch of demos I have scheduled is done with. I don't want to risk people showing up and me not have something that works!
Right now, the ions from that source have to travel about 2+ inches to get inside the main tank, down a skinny pipe, as I have tubing coupler on a 1.33" flange, which is bolted into another 8" flange. Getting the glow closer in should be a pretty big deal....I might contrive some way to get a good bit closer, and improve my ion extractor on the next go around.
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.