Thursday, December 03, 2020, 15:54 :

Got sign off from John Chow to run the system, though the nylon insulator was not ready when he came by. But we went over everything together.

Installed blue nylon insulator with all vacuum surfaces cleaned at least with methanol. No NPT fitting or tube installed, just testing service cap.

Thursday, December 03, 2020, 17:31 :

Tested voltage on the blue nylon insulator up to 75kV, left it at 75 for ~30mins. No sparking, no current drawn except occasionally when changing voltage and only ~1uA then.

Cleaned (but not very well...) the NPT fitting, copper tube, alligator clip and section of copper wire and installed these in the vacuum chamber. Will pump down overnight for testing tomorrow.

See attached photos for insulator setup and wire inside vacuum chamber.