A jar of plasma.

I got a harbor freight vacuum pump for 150 bucks today. Already, after maybe 10 cycles, the switch is broken, hence the wailing on it with a screwdriver (it worked though, didn't it?)

Anyway, i got to what i assume is near the pumps ultimate vacuum, which it is rated for 25 microns, but knowing harbor freight, its probably alot more. However, judging by the color of the discharge, it is working alot better than my A/C compressor used as a vacuum pump. Soon i shall use that pump as a backing pump for this pump. That should lower the ultimate vacuum (or at least get to the 25 micron rating).

The electrodes are 2 copper plates, and the power supply is a MOT with 80vac into the primary halfwave rectified (for no real reason, but it doesn't look a whole lot different with AC), and 2 220k resistors in parallel for 110k of current limiting. They are only 3 watts each, so they get rather hot, but not too bad.

I put some ZnS based phosphor on the bottom (positive) electrode from a CRT TV (it was all three colors, so it looks green). You can see it fluoresce slightly when i move the camera.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• high
• voltage
• plasma
• globe
• evacuate
• vacuum
• tube
• pump
• CRT

[juniortore1]

OMG the UV! I love that purple look it makes in real life. Nice job, I need to try that when I can score a freezer pump or something.

[triggerhappy77707]

@juniortore1 Well this looks white IRL. When the pressure is higher (see my other videos) the plasma is purple. You can see it in this video too, before it gets close to it's ultimate vacuum.

[emanacio]

Playing with your life. The green color cathode ray, X-ray is already stepping out of the bottle. Low voltage small problem with high voltage, big trouble! The secondary X-ray radiation is well! This one will not charge Advice: the radiation shielded

[shamrocktheshamrock]

how did u get plasma and how u get it in a jar

[bassheadjohn]

Cool not sure what its for but it looks cool. Wild stuff. How do you make it?

[ubuntupokemoninc]

could this re-seal a vacuum tube?