pressure vacuum chamber

[Mastercaster]

I am going to attempt to build a bigger chamber that I can do vacuuming and pressure casting in. I have had this piece of 12" schedule 40 PVC pipe for a good while. I will cut a 16" length from this to work with. I already cut off a end to true it up. The pipe is 1/2" thick.

Now that the length has been cut I got a good size piece of laminated wood and marked some lines to center the pipe on. I also drilled holes in each corner to put bolts through to make sure the board was level using a round bulls eye level.
The yellow thing at the inner diameter is a plastic case that cutting blades came in. There is a 1/2 " wide piece of aluminum that will act as a form so that I can pour in silicone. This is part of the lid gasket. I am using the yellow case as a spacer and using GE Silicone II to tack the form in place.

Here is the silicone poured in to start forming the lid gasket.

And here I am doing the same thing to the outside of the pipe too.


Now that the silicone is formed in and out I drilled 1/4" holes every 2 " and inserted 1/4 inch bolts 1 1/2 " long. and of course I forgot to take pics but I took pennies in stacks of four held together with thin strips of ductape to space away from the silicone by 1/4" and about 1" taller to create a resin ring that covers the bolts and silicone.

Here is the silicone rings in and out with the wall of resin to hold it steady. A Silicone3/8" thick layer will be added over this surface once the back end is completed.
Down at the bottom of the pipe here it is centered and four pieces of metal are siliconed down to create a form that will let me make a resin square that will be slid up to be siliconed to the back edge of the ring at the top. I will make two of these rings for support and then a solid end of resin to cap the back end. I will drill holes again and use lengths of rod to keep the back end capped under pressure. Sure hope this works!


Here is the first ring cast and cleaned up and then a pic of it in place. Many sharp edges formed from casting parts like this. Be careful when handling parts. You can get cut easily. I wrapped a layer of tape around the pipe before casting this ring to add as a spacer. The pipe is not perfectly round. It was still a bit hard to put on.

Here is the second ring in the form.

[Mastercaster]

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Since My last post I added another 3/8 inch of silicone to add to the lid gasket. Yesterday I drilled holes 3/8 inch from the bottom edge and put in small all thread for rigidity and support for it to hopefully hold 40 PSI.
Today I boxed it in and lifted it up on four short all thread legs poured a gallon of mixed resin in the inside and outer form. A gallon is half of a resin kit I buy! It will take quite awhile for it to cool to room temp.

[lannyhaas]

I have no clue to what your doing here but It has me intrigued.

[Danno]

I just wonder if it gets floors cleaner!

[darkrapid]

How far will the projectile go?

[Mastercaster]

I hope it does not become a projectile! I'm pretty certain it will not have any problem as a vacuum chamber. It's the idea that it will get a 1/2 thick piece of clear acrylic clinched down enough to hold 40 PSI. It is far from finished. It will get caged in some unistrut chanel. It took about 5 hours for that mass of resin to get back to room temp.

[Mastercaster]

As a vacuum chamber it is working perfectly. I will build a cage for it for pressure casting. This may not be successful. The clear lid is 1/2 inch thick and 15 inches square. It cost me $27.50