Happy Valentines Day! – Things slowed to a snails pace over the past few weeks for no really good reason except perhaps TOF work.
I did however, mount the tuning mechanism and got the copper block threaded to the end. The copper plate inside the cavity will then be soldered to the copper block. I also bought a second-hand tap and die kit for $65 and it is shown in the background.
The brass connector holding up the end is the T junction required to connect the vacuum pump to the vacuum chamber and the digital gauge.
I also received the portal and it looks to be in fabulous condition with all the knife edges clean and defect free. I was also happy to see the sender included an unused copper o-ring!
The yellow capped portal on top is the one I will modify to get the coax cable into the vacuum chamber. I will have to check my box of stuff at the university to see if I have enough covers for the smaller portals.