With Spider still on ice in west Antarctica, construction is well underway on the new cryostat (named Llorothaag aka Lloro aka Thaggie). Last week, Ziggy, Jeff, and I took a trip to Meyer Tool (outside Chicago) to check on things and discuss some details.
From the inside out, the cryostat consists of:
- A main tank, holding about 1300 liters of liquid helium
- A smaller tank for superfluid helium goes beside the main tank
- Two vapour-cooled shields (VCS1 and VCS2), cooled by the still-cold gas that boils out of the main tank . Their cylindrical sides are fixed, while removable closeout plates on the top and bottom circular faces allow the cryostat to be opened.
- A vacuum vessel, which holds all these parts at vacuum like a giant thermos. This consists of a main body and dome pieces for the top and bottom.

First look at the shop floor

Collection of pieces

Main tank with loosely fit VCS1 pieces

Ed, Jeff, and Ziggy for scale

Ken discusses the main tank top

Plumbing fixtures and clamped VCS1

More plumbing
The caps will be cut off for welding in the rest of the plumbing

Main tank top detail

More main tank, VCS1, and FLexures

Closeup of main tank flexure
Six of these support the main tank inside the vacuum vessel

Smaller flexure for supporting vapour cooled shield

Flexure pull test setup
And a VCS part pulled to 154 pounds

Vacuum vessel body
With many ports for attaching electronics, etc

Vacuum vessel inside
With support points for main tank and VCS2

Top dome pieces

The top dome's dome

Bottom dome

Domes

Top dome plate

Plate detail

Welds

Top dome struts

More top dome struts

The "doughnut ring"
For bottom of vacuum vessel. Holes for cryogenic fill/vent ports

Doughnut ring being cleaned

Not Spider. Polished parts to reduce thermal emissivity

Vacuum fitting
"Lightweighted" with "bonus" holes

VCS closeout pieces

VCS2 bottom annulus and closeouts

VCS2 bottom

More VCS2 bottom
With holes for plumbing

VCS2 cable feedthrough detail

VCS2 bottom middle

Assembled with nuts and bolts

VCS1 bottom annulus and closeout

VCS1 detail

VCS1 cable feedthroughs

Assembling the top closeouts

Superfluid tank

How to make a Spider cryostat
In six easy steps

Test plates
From initial tests of the vacuum vessel

Multi-layer insulation
Radiatively isolates the cryostat stages

MLI roller and table

Many cuts

Cryosculpture in conference room
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