Vacuum Chamber.........

I wanted to see if my idea for a tap into a cylinder would work, and or be vacuum tight, so I built a little vacuum chamber......

15cm pipe and fittings, and my rotary vacuum pump


This is what I made the closed end up from, one cap, and two fittings, with a sealing washer, I also used Teflon tape on the threads.


Here we are done, the one end unscrews for easy access.



As you can see, the pump sucks this hose flat in seconds, dunno if they is going to be a problem or not

It seemed to work just fine.

I'll be using it for stabilizing pen blanks etc.

Cheers!

stu, look for some better hose.....thicker wall. you don`t need nylon reinforcement it`s not subject to positive pressure...

OK, thanks Tod, I will.

Cheers!

Stu, My Prosthetic legs have vacuum pumps that pull around 27 in. mercury with each step. There is a small hose leading from the pump to the stump sockets. It takes a hose especially made for vacuum as another hose similar in apperance and of the same physical size, Obtained from the local Hardware store, will collapse under vacuum. For all practical purposes you can't see the difference but there is a difference, the vacuum hose is stiffer and comes on a roll marked "Vacuum" I say this because I learned DAMHIK this trough trial and error (lots of error) As an example of what you are facing. Advice is to seek out Vacuum Hose. The system may work when all componants are in place because there is enough leakage to keep the pump working and not yet flatten the hose, seal all leaks and the hose will fail (weakest link)

Also. A hose that needs re-enforcement to keep it from ballooning (like the braided hose you used) will most definately need help to keep it from flattening out under vacuum. My neighbor replaced the ''incoming" water line to his pool with a braided hose as he thought it would be stronger (braided means stronger, right) and he had the same failure, where the pool pump sucked the walls flat. He went to the Pool store and got the correct hose (much higher price) and repaired the problem (now he is out for the expensive hose as well as the cheaper braided hose... which wasn't very cheap) BTW My pool is Hard plumbed with PVC and I don't have that problem.

Keep up with the progress pictures, they are most interesting... Between you and Niki, my head is spinning with "How did I ever survive" but your adventures and devices are like Eye Candy... "Jigs & Fixture Porn"

Boy-o-boy!!!.....You the vacuuming man Stu!

Maybe you could give us boneheads an explanation why pen blanks need stabilizing and how this is accomplished.?.?.?

Thanks very much...................


P.S......Don't forget, if you pull too MUCH of a vacuum, you can disrupt the time/space continuum.

Mark Rios said:

P.S......Don't forget, if you pull too MUCH of a vacuum, you can disrupt the time/space continuum.

Click to expand...

...as evidenced by Mark's avatar.

Cool vacuum chamber Stu.

Mark Rios said:

Boy-o-boy!!!.....You the vacuuming man Stu!

Click to expand...

Mark, are you saying that I SUCK

Mark Rios said:

Maybe you could give us boneheads an explanation why pen blanks need stabilizing and how this is accomplished.?.?.?

Thanks very much...................


P.S......Don't forget, if you pull too MUCH of a vacuum, you can disrupt the time/space continuum.

Click to expand...

Don't worry about the space time thing, remember I'm half a day at least ahead of you

Some wooden blanks have punky, or soft spots in them, these are also usually VERY nice looking pieces of wood, but they ten to go "BOOM" when you try to turn them, so what you do, I hear, is make a trough of sorts out of tin foil, place the blank in the trough, fill with whatever you are using to "stabilize" the blank, place it in the vacuum chamber, and then apply the vacuum, any and all air in the blank is sucked out, replaced by the stabilizing fluid you put in the trough.

Cheers!

Sorry I missed this until now Stu.

Thanks very much for the explanation. You turners are a magical and mysterious lot.

And yes....you do suck!!!


Thanks again.

Stuart,
A buddy of mine treats his heavily spalted (punky) maple in a vacuum using
Minwax Wood Hardener (available at the big box stores.) He did say
the solvent in the Minwax boils off REAL fast under vacuum. When
you read the product label you wouldn't want to do this without a LOT
of fresh air (outside preferably). ....AND NO OPEN FLAMES.

He's had good results on his turnings so far.

Good luck...keep us posted on your results

Thanks Jim, I've not tried that yet, but maybe for the pen blanks I might.

Cheers!

be carefull sucking solvents through a diaphram type pump......depending on the diaphram material and the solvent you may be in for a nasty supprise piston type or venturi type pumps should be fine? i know an old gast piston pump i used to own had some type of teflon composite for the rings...i`m bettin` that acetone wouldn`t do really well with that configuration?

Stu, I agree with Tod. I use a cheap HF venturi vac pump for stabilizing and NOT my expensive Gast pump. I save that for veneering and vacuum chucking... okay, eventually vacuum chucking when I've gathered all the parts. It might be safe if you are stabilzing with polyurethane, but I wouldn't use it with the rapidly evaporating solvent based wood hardeners or the plexi-acetone mixture I usually use. Keep us posted on your results.

Yes, you guys are correct, is says right on the pump the kinds of solvents to be avoided, I think I can find some that will be fine, like a WB Poly or such.

Cheers!

read the waterbased stuffs msds sheets most offgas some type of acid