DIY Vacuum Chamber For Stablizing Wood

Stuart Ablett

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15,917
Location
Tokyo Japan
I made one before out of some PVC pipe, but that did not work well, poor design on my part :eek:

I was working on this chunk of wood that Vaughn sent me, a piece of >> Spalted Alder << and man it was punky in spots, for the life of me, I could not get any really nice clean cuts, on certain areas, I tried my entire bag of tricks, but the wood was just simply tearing out like crazy. :bang:

I decided I needed to try something besides CA glue, but to do any kind of soaking that would work, I'd need to really stick the piece in a Vacuum Chamber and really saturate it.

I was talking to my lovely wife about this, and asked her assistance on finding a good used pressure cooker on auction or even a reasonably priced one for sale. She asked me how big it had to be, I wanted a fair sized pot, but I did not need anything huge. She suggested that she buy a new one, and I get her old one......... DEAL :D:thumb:


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here is the bottom of the pot, it is fairly old, but well taken care off, and of good quality.

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I checked the safety valve, and as this was a pressure cooker before, and now I'm using it as a vacuum chamber, I took out the safety valve and reversed it......... honestly do not know if that will work, but it seems like a good idea..... :dunno:

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So then I hook up my vacuum pump with the stabilizing solution and the spalted Alder piece in there, turn on the pump......... and get all kinds of fluid into my vacuum hoses and air filter :eek:

I had to clean the whole system :doh: but at least the fluid did not get past the air cleaner, so the pump is OK..........

Plan "B"........

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I got my Mighty Vac out of the bike garage, and used it, seemed to work :)

We shall see how this goes :wave:
 
There are a lot of people who use brake bleeding pumps for pulling a vacuum. Harbor Freight seems to be the favorite. I haven't seen one so I can't say how they work. There is a lot of information on the penturning sites on pressure/vacuum stabilizing. Good luck.
 
Yep, the "Mighty Vac" is a hand operated vacuum pump designed for bleeding brakes.

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Specifications:



Packaged Weight:
Packaged Size:

Pump Displacement:
Max. Vacuum:
Max. Pressure: 12.8 oz (360 g)
10 1/4" x 7 1/2" x 2 1/4"
(260 mm x 190 mm x 57 mm)
1 cu. in. (16 cc) per stroke
25 in. Hg (85 kPa)
25 psi (172 kPa)

Should be good enough, I guess.........
 
I have this stuff that is used for a primer of sorts on the old style wall covering here, called Wara Juraku is composed of natural sand, straw and clay. This stuff looks fairly nice, but if you touch it, it rubs off. A lot of people want to paint over it, in old houses, so the stuff I have is designed to be rolled on,with a long nap roller, to hold this stuff in place, then, when it dries you can paint it.

I hope it works...... :eek:
 
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