vacuum pump

[Mastercaster]

I found out that a vaccum pump can be made from a couple of different parts. The first way is to get a compressor from a refrigerator and wire it up with a cord and switch.
The other way is to get an AC compressor from an automobile. You will need to lock up the clutch by welding it and use a AC motor with a belt to drive it. I was given a setup like this to play with. It is mounted on plywood, it's old and rough. It should draw enough vacuum to de air silicone. Pics soon.





I plugged it in and it works! Once I get it mounted in some other frame it should suck really good!

[Mastercaster]

Here is the other type of compressor that is capable of creating enough vacuum to de air silicone. The tube on the left should be the outlet. The tube on the top right gets capped off and the bottom one gets connected to the vacuum chamber. You will need to wire it with a cord, and switch if you want.

[Danno]

Greg,

How would either of these compare to the vacuum pump that Harbor Freight has for sale?

2.5 cfm. $105.

[Mastercaster]

www.harborfreight.com/25-cfm-vacuum-pump-98076.html

www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/start.shtml

You are probably better off getting one from Harbor Freight. Get the warranty too, the warranty will be money well spent!!. What I suggest above is for someone who might have something like this laying around and has time to tinker.
I am building another vacuum chamber. I found a piece of pipe that is about 8 inches inside. I got one end polished pretty good, the other end I siliconed to a piece of 12 inch square clear acrylic, 1/2 inch thick. Two of them were $25.00. I sourced a 1/8"NPT brass cross, a vacuum guage and a drain valve from Grainger. Those parts were about $23.00, my cost. A 1/8"NPT by 1/4" hose barb was purchased at Ace Hardware. You could use two1/8" tees. They will cost more and be less compact.
I bought a vacuum chamber from Alumilite, but you can build one cheaper. There are some cool experiments you can do in a vacuum chamber too. But you need a clear acrylic pipe to see it good. The place I got the Plastic from may sell clear pipe. I will post some info. You can maybe get a clear coupling from Grainger. A coupling is what you get from alumilite, it is a 10 incher, plenty big! More later.
I do have a piece of PVC pipe that is about four feet long and 12 inches in diameter and a good 1/2 inch thick, about a schedule 120 pipe. It is really too big and would take a lot of work to cut short sections to make them useful for this.
I posted the link to the pump above. Read the customer review section here. It will probably work just fine. I have a 2 stage 5 CFM Robinaire pump. It works pretty quickly but does also spew oil out of the outlet and it does make a mess. I did hook some tubing to it and ran it into a container filled with paper towels but still makes quite a fog. I am going to invent something for this problem too.
NEWSBREAK>>>I just confirmed with our AC tech that I could take crushed charcoal and put in the contaner and it should absorb the oil, nothing like a mother of invent'n, or something like that. I will cut circles of an airfilter and put a couple of layers over that too. I'm really using my noodle! I'm glad I'm not a readhead or I would be red on the noodle like a pecker on a poodle!

[my80malibu]

when you need a vacuum pump. You could go down to Autozone and they let you use thiers for free. You must have to leave a security deposit. that is refunded when you return the equipment. AC pumps are 6.0 Cfm which can suck a golfball thru a garden hose.Just Sayin.

[Mastercaster]

I'm only posting this for on the cheap resin casting equipment to pull air from silicone. If you want to make molds you might be able to get away with making several small pours and not have air trapped in it when it cures. I recently made a mold. I picked it up and it had a couple of bulges on the top. I had never seen this happen before. I stuck my exacto knife in them and sure enough they were air pockets. Forrest said, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you just don't know what you are going to get." And that's all I got to say about that!

[Mastercaster]

Only three trips to the hardware store! Here is a new vacuum pump oil trap I am building. I got a 1/2" PVC cross, four 1/2" PVC caps. I drilled a 11/16" hole in one side of the cross and tapped it with a 1/2" pipe tap and screwed this 1/2" threaded adapter into it. I inserted 3" long pieces of pipe and capped them and drilled holes in the pipe. Looks really scientific and important doesn't it?? I just don't know how anybody can set around and waste their time playing video games when they could be making stuff!



I glued some legs on to lift it up off the floor of the container.


I set the pipe inside the container with the correct length of pipe I need to come through the lid.



I decided to use oil dry instead. Kind of like kitty litter. I hooked it up and turned the pump on. It looked like a scene from a movie where sand is blowing up out of the ground and is steaming hot! So far it's a LOSER!!



So then I found some charcoal filter that is for one of those table top filters and cut some circles.


Then I made this thing out of 1" pvc pipe. I cut several 1" long and glued them together and placed it over the filter material to hold it in place.


I cut some nice circles in a pattern around the lid and set it in place and turned it on and it still smoked like a chimney! I really could have spent the day playing video games. It would have been cheaper than four trips to the hardware store.

[Mastercaster]

Here is the vacuum chamber that I built.

[Mastercaster]

The vacuum chamber seems to work well.

[Mastercaster]

I was told that a compressor out of a refrigerator will not work for this application. The guy said it would pump the oil out and burn up.