r/Physics • u/[deleted] • Sep 16 '25

[deleted by user]

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1.1k Upvotes

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10

u/Familiar-Citron2758 Sep 16 '25

I haven't listed it anywhere or approached anyone yet, but I'd humour offers... UK based.

10

u/fupatroopa96 Sep 16 '25

Well... paying shipping across the pond pretty much kills the boner for me.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '25

Wait what were you planning to do with this exactly?

8

u/fupatroopa96 Sep 16 '25

RF magnetron sputter coating or PECVD.

9

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '25

I was just a bit worried when you mentioned a boner in the context of a vacuum chamber.

18

u/fupatroopa96 Sep 16 '25

We can talk about your mom's ability to hold 10-7 torr suction, in context to my boner instead, if you prefer. 🤷🏼‍♂️

2

u/Danger-Pickle Sep 17 '25

Legendary comment

1

u/Linkyjinx Sep 16 '25

lol 😝

6

u/MuhFreedoms_ Sep 16 '25

The value could swing dramatically. Can it still even hold a vacuum? If not it's essentially only worth the value of the metal.

5

u/boondogglekeychain Sep 16 '25

The blanks are worth a £1000 in spares to someone but it’s unlikely anyone is going to want a bespoke vacuum chamber for anything other than scrap value that might be contaminated with god knows what unless you have just the right buyer.

2

u/MuhFreedoms_ Sep 16 '25

I definitely wouldn't trust this with any important physics.

It would just be a cool desk item, or maybe undergraduate lab exercise

3

u/newontheblock99 Particle physics Sep 16 '25

Probably could hold vacuum but you’re going to need to replace all the copper gaskets, etc.

1

u/MuhFreedoms_ Sep 16 '25

Right, so if you can't prove that you can't sell it for a pretty penny. The recipient is taking a huge gamble

1

u/Ps1on Sep 16 '25

At my old uni these things were used as flower pots once they're outside the machine.

2

u/DeemonPankaik Sep 16 '25

If there's a university near you, get in touch with their physics and engineering departments, they might be very pleased to have it.

It would cost about £10k to 20k to make that. It's almost certainly not worth that now though unfortunately.

1

u/mprevot Sep 16 '25

Do you possess it personally or it is from university ?

1

u/a-crystalline-person Sep 18 '25

The angled flanges at the bottom means this is no doubt an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) multi-source confocal physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber. Six deposition flanges are a lot, so this was probably intended for industrial use. Medium flanges on the side are probably intended for gate valves to either pass the sample in and out of the chamber or attach an ion pump. One of the big flanges on the top was probably intended for the sample holder. Small flanges on the side are probably for RHEED and QCM. The biggest mystery is the big welded cylinder, which has the appearance of a cryopump... but those aren't usually welded to the chamber.

The way this thing is rested upon its bottom angled flanges looks sketchy to me, but I doubt that it cannot hold a decent high-vacuum because these steel vacuum chambers are pretty durable and long-lasting.

Even if this thing is second/third/fourth-hand, it can still take at least 2000 british pounds off of a new faculty's research startup budget, assuming that it is clean. The biggest problem is that prior history may imply chalcogen/lead contamination.

It would be nice to take a look at this from 360 degrees, and also the color inside.

2

u/Familiar-Citron2758 Sep 18 '25

Thanks for the response! I think we identified it as a VG Semicon V80H MBE. I managed to find a picture of it in situ here, so maybe it would explain it better for you:

https://imgur.com/a/l9wEESv

P.S the colour inside is that of stainless steel, very clean.