High-Vacuum Basics and Evacuating Electron Tubes

This one's all about the basics of high-vacuum systems and how I designed the bench that I'll be using to pump down my homemade electron tubes.
You can stay up to date and support me on Patreon here:
/ integratedtherm
Channel Credits:
‪@AppliedScience‬
‪@AdvancedTinkering‬
‪@glasslinger‬
‪@EdwardsVacuum‬

[@Spirit532]

Great video, and a clean explanation! A couple corrections: 1 - Ion pumps are UHV only, and require a high vacuum stage before them to start operating. You cannot start an ion pump from foreline, even if your forepump reaches practical limits(say, 1e-4 mbar). Titanium sublimation pumps _can_ start from rough vacuum, but their useful life is dramatically reduced in that operating mode. 2 - KF & viton _technically_ reach UHV, but baarely. You'll struggle to go below around 1e-7 mbar without suffering.

[@SignalDitch]

I appreciate the clarification! Pinning your comment for future travelers.

[@moonpiespotlight4759]

And no mention of cryogenic pumps

[@Spirit532]

@@moonpiespotlight4759 They're too expensive for your typical hobbyist. And too power hungry sometimes.

[@ericlotze7724]

This is probably the best explanation of Vacuum Systems I’ve seen in KZbin, absolutely AMAZING job!

[@scienceandmathHandle]

As a former sputtering engineer, this is a good explanation. I do wish more of the vacuum pressure was used with torr instead of pascals as it is sort of a standard in the industry. I feel you could have touched on cryopumps, and while I understand they are a little outside the realm of a hobbyist, they also have great pump speeds with water that far exceed turbos for a similar pump size, not including external compressors. I appreciate your explanation on valves, gauges, and on the pumping measurement thought process, good job! Good luck on your vacuum endeavors and BTW I may also have a couple of varian rotary vane pumps, plus boxes of CF stuff taking up space in my garage, if you are still looking for anything....

[@ericlotze7724]

25:19 Amazing setup *AND IT’S PRACTICALLY SKID MOUNTED?!?* stellar build!

[@chrispycryptic]

How do you only have 5.2K subs? Such quality content that is a year old, yet I have only _just_ found you? That is unacceptable -- do better YT!

[@tahu300]

I've just started working for a US vacuum manufacturer and one of the senior manufacturing engineers was geeking out showing me some vacuum pump system that took the vacuum all the way down to e-13 mBar but takes days of bakeout and running a turbomolecular pump at 150 L/s. Cool to see this video afterwards to better understand how difficult that is to accomplish. Also, it is only e-13 mBar on a good day! XD He said the acceptable range is up to e-11 mBar at the worst but even e-12 mBar was good.

[@tahu300]

He also said it takes a lot of time to calibrate it and he said we have to do it every month. I asked him why we don’t have another one. He said it costs 100k and you have to have the business to justify it but our sales guys don’t really want to sell that stuff because it’s a bit complicated to understand. 😂

[@sergiocantoli5783]

Im so thankful to find you teaching all the secrets of deep vacuum. Million thanks!!!!

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

That Melt-Banana poster got you a sub from me! I have a setlist with a sneaker-print from Yako's shoe. I asked her to stamp on it as a memento of a stunning gig at a tiny venue in Hull UK with Rika on bass. Such a fanboi... I'm working towards a high-vac setup to make a quadrupole mass analyser and some Gyrocyclotrons

[@SignalDitch]

I'm jealous, that's rad! Nice project list, too, sounds like you've got your work cut out for you. Now that I have these nice chambers from the Surface Analysis System, I've been thinking about future vacuum projects. But for now I'm trying to keep my eyes on the prize.

[@chrisholt8598]

Nice work! I like your drawing and your slow expansion of the system. We built our own chamber in almost the same sequence you did. But we still havn’t built the roughing bypass. We just patiently wait for the turbo to spin down….

[@ThatWontWorkshorts-kc7kp]

Outstanding video thank you! Just the information I was looking for

[@christiangroves998]

Great video, really clear useful information! Thanks.

[@FriendlyCynic]

Crycoolers if another way to achieve high vacuum. During tests for repairs, our chambers get as low as 3x10^-7 with a Roughing Pump + a TMP evacuating the chambers. And our goal isn't high vacuum, it's testing heat load, so anything over 9x10^-5 is just a consequence of the low temperatures and gas molecules condensing on the Radiation Shield. Now imagine if you had a dual chamber with a large butterfly valve and a way to actuate the head of said Crycooler in and out of the main evacuation chamber. You could pull a UVH, actuate your Crycooler into your main evacuation chamber in order to condense any extra molecules floating around (This has the added benefit that any molecules that don't cool enough to condense will still have less kinetic energy, thus decreasing it's mean free path allowing the blades of your TMP to better capture those slower molecules). After Extremely High Vacuum is achieved, you can then you actuate the cryocooler back into the secondary chamber and close the butterfly valve in order to prevent anything condensed on your Cryocooler from migrating back into your main chamber.

[@orbitONhigh]

Its funny I built an almost identical setup at my compay a few months ago except we use scroll pumps since oil is the worst thing possible for our products. I used a Micro820 PLC for controlling everthing including controlling the turbos.

[@drosphiliamelanogaster3755]

Thank you so much for the video. I can't wait to reconsider some projects that required high-vacuum.

[@KeritechElectronics]

Very interesting and informative. I like your system a lot, and the vacuum gauge is absolutely a thing of beauty and a joy for ever :) Good luck on your tube making journey and congrats on the conference! Cool tattoos too.

[@dominicestebanrice7460]

I watch a LOT of science, tech and tinkering YT and this is one of the best instructionals I've ever seen; you have a gift for this kind of presentation - the vacuum world is bizarre in terms of how its UOM evolved and its terminology - and you clarified it beautifully. Thanks a lot. How about tackling magnetism next 😉 another domain with a multitude of weird UOM and confusing interrelated concepts such as field strength, flux, flux density and magnetic force; if you "do" magnetism like you "did" vacuum you'd 10x your subscriber count.

[@PsychoticAnarchist69]

Is there a chance you can talk about your tattoos? They look super cool I’d love to hear more!

[@samykamkar]

Sweet!

[@RGD2k]

And then there's the Sprengel pump, which is both a roughing and ultra-high vacuum pump. It's just slow as hell.

[@edgeeffect]

Excellent video... I'm just a vacuum fan boy (my toy chamber just has an old fridge compressor) but i still love to watch the real thing on KZbin. Europeans: "oh you Americans, who don't you use common units?" Units of pressure: "Hold our beer".

[@n7275]

Nice! looking forward to the next one.

[@PatrickSalisMEDIA]

THANK YOU, YOUR KNOWLEDGE IS NERY APPRECIATED.

[@mubingdiao5740]

GREAT VIDEO!!!!!!!

[@sebaschtl9710]

yeah melt banana !! good old days. Greetings from germany. Thanks for this summary vakuum course!

[@sto2779]

8:02 - Its interesting that there are no information about drag pump, all I'm able to know about them is hearing and reading about it but not able to get a description of what exactly it is and how it works. No videos of it, no pictures of it. I didn't know that the bottom screw spiral at the bottom of the turbomolecular pump is actually the dragmolecular pump, really interesting. Would be nice if you made a video about it and discussed the progression of early turbo molecular pumps, I know that drag pump was the first molecular pump of it's kind then came the turbo pump. 24:07 - Smart, in a professional setting I bet they do the same. Imagine needing to keep track of 40 valves and lost track of one valve... that would jeopardize the experiment and could even be a disaster, digitized valve system is more safe and organized. Excellent explanation on the subject.

[@printlife9016]

Thanks for sharing the video, it's very informative. Good work!

[@MrBanzoid]

My late friend used to run an optical shop which made large lenses and mirrors. He had a large vapour deposition system to aluminise mirrors up to 1 metre in diameter. He said that vacuum systems are expensive, frustrating and akin to black magic.

[@renetschaggelar]

Turbo pumps are not that sensitive to spurious volumes.So if the tube was at ambient, I'd slowly open the valve to the turbo.The turbo may slow down for a few seconds... As long as it doesn't start screaming..

[@lipingguo6]

Hey fyi, ebay has, at least last time I used it a buyer protection system, if you dont get your item within the set delivery time or its wrong etc you can get a refund from them no questions asked. Great video.

[@glassrootz]

I learned a lot thank you🤘✌️

[@Bmotiontech]

I'm here! thank you

[@moonpiespotlight4759]

You can actually rough through the turbo if your pirani gauge has contacts to control the on/off of the turbo. This means you can stop the turbo and open a vent line to vent the vacuum chamber. This removes the need for all the isolation valves.

[@SignalDitch]

In my application, it may be necessary to bring the exhaust port up and down from high vacuum in a relatively short period of time and I'd like to avoid the long spin down and spin up time of the turbo whenever that's necessary. When the system is brought up, it initially roughs through the turbo, but after the turbo is spinning, it's much faster to just vent and then rough down only the evacuation port when necessary, isolating the turbo so it never has to turn off.

[@eugen-m]

Great job !!! Congrats 💚💚💚

[@mr1enrollment]

good work

[@ivarsandin7275]

This is gold

[@burakuda]

great summary!

[@petergoodall6258]

Amazing -thanks!

[@Самоделионполезион]

При условии что механическим насосом будет достигнуто 10-3 Torr следующий насос ,например поршневой, может откачивать еще остающиеся молекулы газа при условии что система клапанов ( устройства управления газовым потоком) будет работать принудительно . Ему будет это делать легко не смотря что обьем полости , цилиндра будет большим (газ разряжен и насос будет работать в холостую). Копус может изготовлен из легких не сильно прочных материалов .

[@thenimbo2]

Hot damn this rules. Looking for exactly this info!

[@MrSlehofer]

Awesome, keep it up!

[@justinserra4844]

sorry for being late to the show but this looks very cool. whats the project all this is for.

[@theonewhowas7709]

15:10 youd been better off casting and smelting your own new pulley.. perhaps out of old brake rotors or somthing else that is cast iron.. you could used what was left of the original and still made out a pretty decent pulley.. ofcourse if any of this is within your skills though.. but it honestly isnt that difficult

[@FPiorski]

Hell yeah!

[@FerociousPancake888]

I’m just trying to get components for my simple 1 stage rotary vacuum pump to be able to do roughly accurate vacuum distillations but it’s been quite the struggle. Such a fantastic video though and super fascinating. What type of work are you hoping to do with this setup?

[@SignalDitch]

Sorry to hear it, yeah vacuum parts seem to be rare and expensive in general. There are a few different types of electron tubes I want to build and play with. Initially, I'm interested in VFDs, but I want to play with CRTs and other display tubes as well. I also have some ideas about novel planar triode/pentode devices. Eventually, I'll probably wander into accelerators and other particle physics stuff. Just fooling around in the garage type of stuff, not trying to spin up a tube factory or get published or anything ^^

[@FerociousPancake888]

@@SignalDitch Sounds extra cool. Excited to follow along!

[@nkdm87]

Great work! Do you plan to do anything with the chamber from the setup?

[@dtiydr]

6:12 A diffusion pump is not even close to be common in the industry, that is a turbopump since they don't give away any oil or such what so ever.

[@CruzMonrreal]

You use a ReMarkable too! How did you create your recording setup with it?

[@SignalDitch]

I love my ReMarkable. I paid for the stupid subscription service that unlocks screen-casting. I don't know if I'd recommend it, honestly. I just found out about an alternative firmware for the ReMarkable that's somewhere on Github (I can't remember the name of it) that I think gives you the same functionality without having to use ReMarkable's cloud.

[@Erhannis]

4:30 Well - halfway _logarithmically_, maybe. If the moon is 3e-10, you probably still have like ≥1000x more air in your vacuum than on the moon.

[@SignalDitch]

Oh yeah, for sure.

[@gmcguitars396]

Great video! Thanks for all the info 🙌 I have a question for you, what adaptor (thread size) did you use to convert that harbor-freight rotary vane into KF25? I have a CPS (10cfm pro-set) vacuum pump that I want to upgrade to KF25 on the inlet port, I think using loctite or torrseal on the KF25 adaptor thread could give me a perfect seal for upgrading the original flare sae inlet into a KF system...

[@SignalDitch]

The inlet on the Harbor Freight pump is NPT. I bought an adapter from "LoCo Science" on eBay. They've been a good source for new KF fittings. You may find an SAE adaptor. If your application is particularly critical, you may be able to force an NPT fitting there and seal it with something, but I don't necessarily recommend it. If you are going to attempt that, something like Hysol 1c (I assume that's what you mean by Loctite) might do it. You could also try a hard wax vacuum sealant like Apiezon Wax W or Faraday Wax.

[@poly_hexamethyl]

It seem to me that you're going to lose a lot of conduction and take a long time to pump down if you have such a narrow-diameter pipe coming out of your diffusion pump intake. Wouldn't it be better to keep it wide right up to the point where you attach the tube you want to evacuate, and only narrow it there?

[@habaristra6248]

Am I shtupeed? Inches of Water? Inches of Mercury ?

[@SignalDitch]

I don't understand your question. Are you confused about why those units aren't covered? Those are more common in low/rough vacuum, like you might find in refrigeration and HVAC. As I mention in the video, we do use a measurement derived from millimeters of Mercury called the Torr (which was later redefined, so it's not strictly 1 mmHg, but it's close). You're not likely to find InAq or InHg on a commercial high vacuum gauge.

[@sigfried3449]

😎 ρɾσɱσʂɱ

[@alandavis6429]

You ought to contact Elon Musk, he can do it a lot more efficiently...hay it's just like an air hockey table.

[@maurod6180]

GREAT VIDEO!!!!!!

[@kayakMike1000]

Perfectly cromulent? That's a new word, it's very rare I hear a new English word.

[@SignalDitch]

It's a new one! It was a joke from The Simpsons and Webster's picked it up at some point in the past few years, lol

[@kennydieu2694]

great video and very informative. Thank you

[@bc7495]

Perfectly cromulent indeed

[@poloska9471]

Came here wondering if it's possible to make a home-made DIY vacuum as pure as interstellar space and my my was I super disapointed when I heard that the moon's ever-so-barely-present """atmosphere""" is a way purer vacuum than anything possible even with this epic lab setup... Dang it... Now I need to go get me some space... gosh darn it, Skeeter... and here I was hoping that maybe I can somehow study the properties of empty space and special matter/material properties in it with a DIY setup but it looks like thats much harder to do than I am ready for. :/

[@slobodanstankovic4354]

Great work and nice tutorial, thank you very much. Keep going.

[@fatihtokmo8846]

Excellent work! (MOCVD engineer here)

[@SignalDitch]

Thank you!

[@fluffy_tail4365]

nice setup!