The thermal evaporator is our "workhorse" general purpose thin film deposition system. It was originally manufactured by Denton, but it has been heavily modified over the years. It is a diffusion pumped bell jar chamber with three evaporator stations in the base plate. The chamber can reach pressures in the low 10-6 range after 1-2 hours of pumping. The chamber does not presently have a liquid nitrogen cold trap because its original trap developed a vacuum leak. A new or repaired cold trap would likely reduce the chamber's base pressure to the low 10-7 range. A single high current AC power supply can be switched between the three evaporation sources. The maximum current is presently 100 A, although a wiring and switch upgrade could increase that to 200 A. We evaporate material from coiled tungsten filaments, tungsten dimple boats, or quartz crucibles depending on the material characteristics. The evaporator is presently configured for room temperature substrates. The film growth rate and thickness can be monitored with a quartz crystal monitor.