> Nick: Hi, I use TM because I was lucky to get few for reasonable price from > local bancrupted research company, together with all the accessories. Diff > pump are much cheaper, they need practically no maintenance (when used right > way), but they it takes much longer time to start it up and also the cool > down. TM is more flexible in this way and saves a lot of time, especially > during development. And TM pump also provides oil-free operation, which is > good, but essential matter in nixie tube making.
TM pumps are noisy beasts, but they really do manage excellent volume at low pressure. Maintenance is pretty simple, just lube the gears every few months I think. Their monstrous capacity (I used to work with a small one that could manage 1200 liters per second) lets you get 10E-6 torr fairly quickly with a small enclosure and not a lot of special effort. With a little effort, some time, and maybe an ion pump or two to help, you can get 10E-8 torr. I got tired of the constant noise, so I built a box to cover ours out of acoustical tile. It helped a lot. The thing was quieter after it got lubricated too, so I'd do it 3-4x a year instead of 2. - John -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/587DBF56-5A4A-4592-A90C-1003A902C1B4%40mac.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
