Lerner wrote: Not to be mysterious, but there was a lot of arcing between metal parts in the last round of shots. Arcing vaproizes metal and unevenly adds lots of heavy metals to the plasma, so we could not test the new idea. Putting the tungsten and copper together so there is no arcing is not easy, and we have to wait in line at the machinists, who are pretty busy in our neck of the woods. So the test is yet to be done. When we get to the head of the line and get our parts back, we will be able to do it–next month,we hope.
Even the fictional Fusion/Sonoluminescence team had a dedicated Keanu Reaves machinist on staff. Maybe if you hired a bad actor to be a full time machinist, he/she could also find magic frequencies that would increase the yield beyond Q>1.
Anyway, good luck with solving the arcing problem, and getting your parts. I know it must be frustrating to have progress slowed by elements outside of your control.