- Joined
- Feb 7, 2013
- Messages
- 2,496
The Balzers-made unit your magnets came from was a ionization type vacuum gauge. The parts exposed to vacuum probably are stainless steel. Don't know if you got that part of the gauge or not -- the actual sensor is replaceable, what your photo shows is the body that has the magnets and electronics.
And yes, when new they are expensive. The consumable part of the gauge alone costs about $150....
A friend of mine picked up several of these units at a dumpster somewhere in Arizona as well as some other larger electronics boxes by Balzer.
He knows I do a lot of electronics work and thought I might be able to use some of this equipment. Yes, the vacuum parts look like stainless steel
but I am not able to find a use for such specialized stainless steel parts. I'm basically scrapping this stuff out and using what I can use before
it goes to recycling. I have one unit that has a fan assembly like a tiny jet engine that sends information on pressure or flow or something like that
to likely a computer.