Vacuum Pump Build

[Kim]

Indeed as Allen said a well made system with reservoir makes the unit more efficient and flexible. When gluing, the reserved vacuum will evacuate air instantly and bring the membrane quickly into contact with the work piece without any need to wait and hope nothing moves. This feature is very handy if you have a large project in a big vacuum bag.

Another plus is that you have a head of vacuum to provide instant grip when vacuum clamping, you can clamp and release and clamp again as fast as you like because only the vacuum in the lines need to replaced between cycles and as you have a vacuum control switch monitoring the reserve, the available vacuum remains constant. This also mean that the pump itself only needs to run when the reservoir requires topping up, saving wear and tear and reducing shop noise.

Speaking of wear and tear, the system includes a mac valve, (the small blue box on my system) which works in conjunction with a check valve (inline brass fitting) and a small 'free air' tank (the small red cylinder on my system). These components work together to save a great deal of load on the vacuum pump when it needs to restart each time the Hg drops by providing 'free air' which is air at normal atmospheric pressure, thereby allowing the pump to reach full speed instantly instead of fighting against any vacuum which remains in reserve.

So these fancy looking systems do actually have a function over and above a standard vacuum pump with direct connection to the work piece insomuch that they make working with vacuum more reliable and efficient. They reduce wear on the vacuum pump. They increase the flexibility of the tool and they reduce noise and power consumption.

So there

P.S. Jeff, I believe many people use the old fridge motors with 'suckcess'. If you go down this track just be aware that not all are equal. Newer pumps are designed for better insulated fridges so are designed to run less frequently. You are better with an older style pump as they are designed to run for longer periods before they over heat and burn out. The newer pumps do have circuity to avoid over heating, but this needs to be bypassed for them to work as vacuum pumps and once you do that, they suffer a much shorter life span. That said, the older motors avoid heat by carrying more cooling oil, and this in itself can bring it's own issues for obvious reasons.

P.S.S. Since i took the above image i have also added a set of 2" swiveling casters to the underside of the unit as it is quite hefty little sucker. I have also added a cord caddy to the "T" clamp which hold the reservoirs in place.

Here is where i got my swiveling casters, $7.80 a set of 4 plus $11 express post to my door. Good casters and good service.

http://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/C-TOOLS- ... QQ_fsubZ12

Cheers

Kim

[Pete Brown]

Kim wrote:
So there

Cheers

Kim

Kim, I really wasn't putting forward an argument for use of the vacuum valve over your high-falutin' contraptions, or "dissing" them in any way! As far as I'm concerned, any bit of gadgetry with blue bits AND red bits isn't to be dismissed lightly. Like I said, I was just unaware of all their advantages.

Thanks for filling in the gaps (caverns?) in my knowledge!

[Kim]

Pete, i did not take it that way mate, i was just funning.

[jeffhigh]

I'm not going with an old fridge pump Kim, I have one of these coming
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... SA:AU:1123

[Kim]

Schweeeet!

[Dennis Leahy]

Kim, that switched on a few light bulbs for me too!

Thanks!

Dennis

[HiString]

Jeff,

My vac unit is at work at Cardiff if you want to have a look at how it's all connected..........Mob; 04...13 96.....00 83, give me a call.

I'll dig around and see if I've got any records of where I sourced the bits and pieces..............actually, Pirtek (sp) at Cardiff may be worth a call.

Chris

[jeffhigh]

I didn't reailize you were up this way Chris, must get together

[Stu]

This is a real eye opener this thread, and although I know relatively nothing about it nor thought previously about buying a kit and building for vacuum pressing, I'm going to jump in and get on board. I can see so many different ways this could be useful around the workshop, and this is after only scraping the surface of ideas.

THe Joewoodworker site really has so much info on this, it would be hard to go wrong with it.
Thanks all for posting extremely relevant info on the subject.

Cheers,Stu

[jeffhigh]

Well I got my pump and was a little concerned when I read the documentation and found it listed the vacuum as 5Pa (less than a mouse fart)
But I got my vacuum guage today and it goes straight up to 30 inches so I guess it's just a mistake in the documents.

[Allen]

Here's my creation. Kim set the bar fairly high with his, so not to look like I'm a rough old bastard I had to tart this one up too.

img~

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The carrier is just some MDF that I edged up with some New Guinea Rosewood. Stained the MDF with some rosewood stain in order to make it look something like those leather writing sections in antique desks.

Vacuum canisters are some 75 mm alloy pipe with some 12 mm thick cutting board material as end caps.

I set the system up to kick off at 21 " HG as per the instructions on Joe Woodworkers site. It pulls more than that though. System holds pressure for approximately 10 minutes before cycling on again. I suppose that isn't too bad.

Now to get the other pieces set up.

[Kim]

Very nice indeed Allen, however i perceived your efforts would be quite fancy so in order to maintain EVS supremacy i am pleased to inform that i have since fitted casters and a 25cc brush cutter motor to mine and now use it to commute to work each day. In fact it has worked out so well i am seriously considering installing a passengers seat for Bob so we can use it for the next trip to Albany, should be much more economical than the 350ci Staydoe.

Well done M8

Cheers

Kim

[Dominic]

You guys haven't seen my stretch limo buffing machine have you.

[Allen]

I was considering a couple of stubbie holders for mine Kim. She'd be a sweet ride then Cool

Got my foot switch hooked up to my vacuum vise and it's all so freakin' cool I can't wait to have an instrument ready to go. Even the wife was impressed, and I can tell you, that's no easy feat.

I did try a piece of MDF on the vacuum vise and was amazed that the pump wouldn't shut off. I looked at the gauge and it read just 5 "hg. I thought something had gone wrong, but then placed my hand over the MDF on the vise. I could actually feel air being sucked through it, so the pump was struggling to keep up with the loss.

Good lesson there to not use MDF for vacuum jigs unless they are VERY WELL SEALED.

[Stu]

Overwhelmed by the builds in regards to the vac presses.

Got to build a bare bones ugly as sin model.
Reliced?

[Lillian]

Well done Allen.

If I wasn't already in a heap of trouble, I'd move this up on the list of things I want to do that aren't related to working on/around the house. One of these days I'll be back in the shop. In the mean time, I'm off to work. Need that fifty cents.

[stevec1234]

Hi Guys,

I am in the middle of building one of the EVS kits from Joewoodworker.com with one of the Thomas pumps which was hooked up through Michael here on the forum.

I am just about ready to wire everything up, on the joe woodworker site he only has instructions for 110v. Is it the same wiring for us here in Aus. If not would anyone with the same combo like to take a picture of their wiring or spend 5min explaining what is different from wiring a 110v set up

Thanks

[Allen]

Mine is wired up the same. Sorry, no pictures as it's all hidden away in switch boxes et.

[Dominic]

Steve, just follow the diagram on JWW site. The only difference is that my pump had an earth wire to connect as well. And I also put in a power point on the pump so I could plug in power tools.
Works well.
Cheers
Dom

[Nick]

Dominic wrote:
I think these guys have a point. If you are at all unsure what you are doing be very careful.

Switches usually come with a wiring diagram somewhere in the pack. Or you can have a look at how an existing switch is wired (turn of the power first). You should have an active (red), neutral (black) and earth (green) terminals on the switch. Match your wires to the marked sockets. Its good to solder the ends you wire up to ensure a good connection which can prevent over heating from a poor contact.

But if you are even the slightest bit unsure be very careful or leave it for someone who knows what they are doing.

Dom


Don't know about OZ Dom but here in NZ they've moved away from the red,black, green to Brown,Blue & Yellow with a green stripe Evil or Very Mad Have to look up to see what's what everytime! Don't know why it should be so hard to remember but the old red black & green was just common sense! Red= Hot & Green= Earth, the black took care of itself then.

[Puff]

Has me stuffed too. Gave it a load of thought and came up with the only plausible reason was that the new fangled colours better matched someones study into partial or otherwise colour blindness figures.
That said the other thought was that red, green and black worked so........

[Kim]

Tis true, someone I knew well who was colour blind was firm that he cannot tell the difference between the colours red and green. The shades can change as per gray scale, but to him they remained indistinguishable and could be one or the other. An affected driver approaching a set of traffic lights relies solely upon the position of the illumination within the tree, not colour. I think Australia changed over to blue and brown with a yellow/green earth back in the 1970's or maybe even earlier. If your ever in doubt which is which, stick your tongue on all the bare wires with the other end plugged in and you shall have a revelation that will leave you with no further question....ever.

Cheers

Kim

[liam_fnq]

Australia and NZ both use AS/NZ 3000 as a rule book for electrical work so I assume the rule is the same both sides.

Red, Black, Green is for fixed wiring (ie. the stuff in your walls)

Brown, Blue, Green is for flexible leads (ie. extension leads, any lead attached to a power tool etc)

Quote:
Switches usually come with a wiring diagram somewhere in the pack. Or you can have a look at how an existing switch is wired (turn of the power first). You should have an active (red), neutral (black) and earth (green) terminals on the switch. Match your wires to the marked sockets. Its good to solder the ends you wire up to ensure a good connection which can prevent over heating from a poor contact.


This is somewhere between wrong and a bad idea. A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

I've looked behind a lot of switches, from 10A to 1000A and never seen active, neutral and earth terminals.

[Dominic]

Hey Liam, plenty of old plugs and switches I have have in my house are marked with A active, N neutral and E earth terminals. And I just opened a new switchable power point to check and its terminals are coloured, red = active, green= earth and the last one is for black. So its not wrong. I'm not game to say if red goes with brown or blue. I always forget and have to check which is probably better than relying on my memory.
The thing is to always be very careful.
Of course, if there are no markings at all you must go with Kims idea and hope you can still taste beer the next day.
Cheers
Dom

[Allen]

I'm fully aware of my limitations and don't mind pawning off work like this. I'm rather fortunate in having a couple mates that are sparkies. Liam and Micheal have both lent a hand in my new shed. I just have to make sure the beer fridge is stocked up before I ring them up. They all seem pretty thirsty when they show up. Must be the trade.