[ohohyodafarted]

The glass does not have to be covered, but part of the ultor ring, where RACS will deposit frit glass in the "trough" behind the bulge on the ultor ring, must be masked off so it will not get nickel plated. That area must stay as unplated Kovar so the frit will bond nicely with the ultor ring.

RE: 21AXP22, there is no reason that this method of nickel plating the weld on a 21AX shouldn't also work on the 21" tube. However a lot more masking will be needed, and the weld flange will also have to be sand blasted prior to plating so it will plate properly.

MInd you this is still speculative. We still have to plate the ultor ring on a 15G tube and then use our helium leak detector to see if we have fixed the weld leaks. If the tube is still leaking, then we are back to square one and nickel plating is not the solution to the problem if the tube still leaks.

So lets not count our chickens before they hatch. I know everyone is hopeful, but John and I have been here before, only to have our high hopes dashed and crashed into a million pieces. This is not a sure thing at this point and even if we find that the nickel plating sealed the leaks, we still have to do a successful rebuild at RACS to actually prove that the nickel plating solves our problems.

At this point all I know for sure is that the nickel plating seems like it will be able to endure the 650F temperature of the evacuation oven if we get to the point of rebuilding a tube.

More posts will follow as soon as I have more to report.