Vacuum Chamber ready to go

[Burt25]

Just finishes making my DIY vacuum chamber - now to get some Cactus Juice and start stabilising.
All done for under £200. Used Robinair Vacuum pump, Vintage glass sweetie jar, fittings and hose from ebay, Sheet of rubber for gasket (All from Ebay)Sample piece of Corian (Free!).

Tested tonight and seems to be working great - just need to order up some Cactus juice and get stabilising - have a load of punky spalted beech which until now I havent been able to do anything with.

 

[sammy]

Good luck hope the blanks come out well.
George

 

[Bill Mooney]

Looks good. A nice project.

 

[Penpal]

Ripper mate ,just the ticket. Have success.

Peter.

 

[Phil Dart]

Serious question, based on ignorance on my part Ian - is that black rubber seal all that is required to maintain sufficient vacuum in the jar. No mechanical means of attaching the lid to the jar apart from the seal?

 

[wm460]

Looks great Ian, all set up ready to go. [emoji106]

I guess by the time I get home you will have some blanks ready to show us. [emoji13][emoji12]

 

[Bammer]

Serious question, based on ignorance on my part Ian - is that black rubber seal all that is required to maintain sufficient vacuum in the jar. No mechanical means of attaching the lid to the jar apart from the seal?

That's all Phil, even the big pots just have a seal, no mechanical means.;

 

[Penpal]

All vacuum systems used on a lathe use the same principal,n the situation on the lathe the trick is to turn off the vacuum after you stop the lathe. A simple vacuum cleaner was all I used on my vac system made by Vic Marc. I gave this with the lathe I used it on not long back to a mens shed. Loved it.

Peter.

 

[fortress]

We look forward to seeing some nice blanks/pens Ian,

Viel Glück Sir.

 

[wm460]

Middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere I suddenly get Internet access, just thought I'd try it out. [emoji55]

 

[nimrod]

I use the same principal but use an old pressure cooker for the pot. Ian there is a company in Coventry called Ultraseal they make a wood stabiliser its a while since I bought it, it was £150 for 5kg plus delivery. I was very pleased with the results and also got some forum members to turn some stabilised blanks who agreed. If you are interested their email is www.ultraseal.co .uk

Robin

 

[Normancb]

Can I plead with you at the very least to wrap that sweetie jar in a layer of sellotape or insulating tape or enclose it in a tightly fitting plastic net.

I spent a long career working in laboratories with vacuum equipment and glass vessels. That’s a pretty nice pump you have there and will pull a decent vacuum, which means you will have 15 psi pressure difference across the walls of your vessel. Heavy square-cornered jars with flat bottoms are not designed to withstand that sort of load and any kind of stress-concentrating micro-crack or small impact can cause the whole thing to implode. I’ve seen what happens when a lab desiccator implodes and it’s not at all pretty – high velocity glass fragments are not nice. I would never evacuate something like that without some way of containing an explosion.

Sorry to come over as preaching H&S but if that’s genuinely a vintage sweetie jar then you’ve built a significantly dangerous device.

 

[Penpal]

To confirm the above check out the IAP library. Implosion is sure nasty.

Peter.