Vacuum chamber for aluminizing optical surfaces
Monday, March 7th, 2011 at
12:33 pm
This was the culmination of my Amateur Telescope Making obsession 
Back in 2002 I built this vacuum chamber to coat my home made telescope mirrors with a thin optical layer of evaporated aluminum. If you have any specific questions, post them in the comments and I'll shoot video and answer your question (If I can.. ) BTW, I no college grad, so I do this stuff because I find it fun, not because I think I know what I'm doing!
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US $29.95
4-5 year obsession?? It has only been 4 months for me. Thanks for the warning
long talk but its sooo cooool
@pedrocosmos Just residual atmosphere used in the plasma cleaning cycle.
Very nice machine. Could you please let me know if you use Argon gas when you plasma etch your optics or just the ‘regular’ atmosphere ?
Thanks and keep doing great videos.
Frieken’ cool!
I already admired the small chamber, but this is great.
Very impressive. How even is the coating? Is there any measurable difference between coated and uncoated mirror cconcerning the figure?
Thanks for the video.
This is one of my top 1% most interesting and useful video of youtube! It’s great of you to piecing together your research and creating an awesome toy! What’s more important, you’re willing to share your knowledge. My highest respect for you.
Thanks.
Hee Hee.. well done James. I looked at the retail prices of large telescope mirrors and Meade are quoting the same price for an entire scope!! (16″ dob).
what is the cold trap copper pipes thing?
You were the one that made me start with all this, thanks!
Great videos!
Very cool James
Make a second video
Greetings from Bulgaria
would you not just melt it and spin it instead of carving it?
I’d need to install 6 tantalum evaporation boats each having a mechanical shutter, and a film thickness monitor to close the shutters once the proper thickness has been achieved.
Long story short, its a pain to properly implement the over coating process and the reason I have not attempted it yet.
I’ve considered it, and my proposed power supply is going to be my variable output TIG welder, because it will take a LOT of power to heat 6 tantalum boats
Thanks for sharing… Congratulations on the design of system. Please, can you explain how you could add the feature protection coating of SiO2 in your chamber? This is possible in a homemade system?
How many amps is needed to make the SiO2 coating?
Thanks
I´m Sandro Coletti from Brazil.
Now that’s something you don’t normally find on a garage shop work bench.
Very cool