Vacuum Chamber

AkWildman

AkWildman

Well-Known Member
I have been gathering odds and ends to build a vacuum chamber for a while,I was about to have the wife pick up a tall 3 1/2 inch heavy wall glass vase at a craft store fore me and I was gathering parts to build a lid with a gasket from a camlock.As I was thinking it through on how to secure everything it dawned on me that the perfect chamber is already built and I have one in my home.I went on Amozon prime and plased a order ,I think it was 27 dollars with free shipping.I couldn't have made one cheaper then that.It's a cullagan in home water filter.I will do a wip on the plumbing when I get home next week http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000B...pi=SL500_SR53,115&refRID=1DD6AQNTYD7R46JN7VMX
 
Waiting to see more on this one! Remember pics, pics and more pics!!

I got to thinking about this last night what are the dimensions of the chamber of the water filter??? Just guessing but I would guess it was about quart size???? How thick is that cylinder??? The more I think about this the more questions pop up!!!

The more I read up on doing a vacuum implosion becomes an apparent thought!:les::what!::31:
 
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The inside dementions of the jar are something like 12 x 5 and it's heavy walled ,I know this won't implode .I put one at work under 30 inches of vac ,will only be doing one or two sets of scales or one block at a time so its a perfect size for me.I'm trying to decide on whether to use a pump or a vacuum generator.
 
Hello guys:

I built mine out of 2 Mason Jars, some tubing and brass valves and a $100 Harbor Freight vacuum pump. I've done dozens of scales and it works like a charm.IMG_1043.jpg
 
I'm not real keen on the mason jar type due to the lids,I work with high pressure and high vac evey day on my job and have seen some crazy things happen.Volume does have a lot to do with it though.I want something more durable ,I'm also going to be plumbing mine with a secondary inlet hose.I will be doing a dry vac and then after I have had my material under a vac for a while I will introduce my juice to the chamber.
 
That's an interesting way to do it AK - That filter chamber will work great. I like the idea of the vertical setup - my chamber is flat, but I think I like the vertical better.

Ken H>
 
wmhammond said:
Hello guys:

I built mine out of 2 Mason Jars, some tubing and brass valves and a $100 Harbor Freight vacuum pump. I've done dozens of scales and it works like a charm.View attachment 51182
Click to expand...

So I got to ask, why the two jars??? Is one to put the stabilizer in? Please enlighten me a little on your procedure with this setup, if you don't mind!

I also have another question and this one goes out to anyone that has done there own stabilization. When the piece is ready to come out of the vacuum chamber how is it dried, IE hanging up, air, heat and how long does that drying process take?
 
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We stabilize a lot of wood in our shop. mostly for us but my son sells some.
I bought the glass vases from Hobby Lobby and they work fine you can get most any size you want.
I also bought some laboratory glass tubes that work fine but they got broke when moving.
The ones from Hobby Lobby we about the same looking but the price was about 1/10 as much.
I now use some of those and then some gallon tea jars. we make the lid out of aluminum and rubber
we get here for a seal. They all work great. sometime we leave the vacuum running for as mush as 10 hours on
some of the wood and have never had a problem. We have a 12 cfm vacuum 2 hp that hold about 29.7 here.
Just make sure you do a good job because half stabilized wood is worse than no stabilization at all.
We then wrap in aluminum foil, we get the boxes they use for sandwiches at Sam's, very cheap for 500 pieces
and they are the right size, we double wrap most of them. some of the wood we put in a pressure tank with the juice by just putting the entire jar inside and pressure up to about 150 lbs. Then we bake at 190 degrees for about 2 hours (temp is critical)
It all works great for us.
After stabilizing see if it will float (if so) you just wasted the wood. If it floats it is no good at all. And you can't redo it either.
 
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C Craft said:
So I got to ask, why the two jars??? Is one to put the stabilizer in? Please enlighten me a little on your procedure with this setup, if you don't mind!

I also have another question and this one goes out to anyone that has done there own stabilization. When the piece is ready to come out of the vacuum chamber how is it dried, IE hanging up, air, heat and how long does that drying process take?
Click to expand...

OK, here's the deal: 2 jars - one is for overflow to prevent any fluid being sucked into the pump. When you first turn on the rig it sucks a lot of air out of the wood in a short time and you get a large foaming action that fills the jar and actually sucks some fluid into the second jar. Sometimes I end up with as much as an inch of fluid in the second jar. You will notice that the jars are different sizes but the lids are interchangeable, I use the large jar for up to 5 sets of scales and the small one for 1 or 2 - just change their order in the series.

How do I dry my stabilized scales. Spread some newspaper on your work surface. Spread a box of medium sized box (big flat heads #8) nails over your newspaper Take the scales out of the fluid and rest them on the nails ;)

Wallace
 
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