Gallery, Projects and General > The Design Shop
Vacuum pump or my maddest modding project yet.
Henning:
Magnetic switch seems to be dead, so i quickly decided to discard completely, and then sorted out the electric box which has the main switch, all connections and the capacitor:
Need to add to the cart to get somewhere to put it now! And source some more parts.
Rob.Wilson:
Hi Henning
What will you be making once you have the vacuum machine sorted ?
Rob
Henning:
--- Quote from: Rob.Wilson on October 28, 2011, 03:06:43 PM ---Hi Henning
What will you be making once you have the vacuum machine sorted ?
Rob
--- End quote ---
It's primarily to be able to make curved bits out of that hideous brown stuff (wood), but i see no reason not to use it for other interesting projects like gun stocks from glassfibre or carbon fibre, maybe even stabilizing wood with the right accessory.
Sourced some parts today, an old fire extinguisher for pressure tank, some fittings and some hose.
Pic's tomorrow. I did find a filter type of thing completely filled with crud which i had to break to get out, and as this is right above the chamber for the rotary vanes, i took the part off to avoid dirt getting into the chamber.
That means a rebuild of that part will need to be done including making a new filter (piece of stainless mesh) :doh:, and the powder from the fire extinguisher needs disposing of :loco: and then i can start to look into making the pressure chamber and a thousand other small jobs. Plus the odd mishap, this project should keep me off the streets for a few more days i think :dremel:
Henning:
Well, i have done a few more things.
After a lot of procrastination, cunningly disguised as "design process" i decided to get a move on yesterday after having sourced some parts on friday.
A little thinking, drawing and figuring out later i produced a scheme for how i wanted it to look and work. I then set out to start on the pipe and hose side of things.
I figured a tank would come in handy. A rummage around in my friends barn produced several different variants, and after a little thinking i took off with this:
Taken apart and emptied it looked like this:
Now everything that passes my bench which i haven't seen or otherwise learned how works before will be picked apart and inspected until i fully understand how it works, why it works and how it looks inside. I am also not very good at throwing stuff away, but squirrel it away somewhere in my ever increasing pile of "that'll come in handy some day"
This is the mechanism from the fire extinguisher soon to be completely picked apart:
Now i had a small problem. The threads on the fire extinguisher was not very standard. Which meant i would need to make a new fitting for the tank :wonder: , then drill a hole, tap that and make another fitting for that :headsl: and then connect the various inlets and outlets.
Not a job i looked forward to, i admit, but then lightning struck and i had one of my brighter moments. The fitting from the extinguisher already had three threaded holes, one with a hose connection already and it would be quite simple to drill them and just make two new fittings for the last two holes.
Off we go! This is the top of fitting where the push valve used to be. I drilled and tapped for a regular thread, and this will, as soon as i manage to source a vacuum manometer be used for that. In the meantime i'll just plug it:
Then i drilled up the two holes in the mechanism which where already threaded but only had very small holes (manometer and safety valve):
And made two fittings on the lathe (Not my prettiest, but they'll work, i guess):
As luck would have it, i of course didn't have the right size threading dies (M10x1 would maybe not be a completely impossible one to find, but M14X1??? The only place i've seen that thread before is on old Citroen cars... In which they were left handed as well) so i will order them tomorrow and then get them threaded and then drilled through. These will accept hoses for the two separate outlets. A tame engineer i know said that it was no problem to do it like that, what do you all think?
Lastly, i had to rebuild the outlet part of the pump after a small mishap with the coarse filter in there.
The filter consisted of very fine stainless steel mesh, something i couldn't produce after an hour of going through my "that'll come in handy someday"- piles anyway, i was a bit lost as to how to produce the holder for the mesh (Small steel ring to the back right of the picture).
So, i've tried something different, and i will be sure to keep an close eye on this, as i am not at all sure it will work, but this is how it looks now:
It's hard to see, but i made a coarse filter out ofa piece of fabric from an old thin woolen sweater, then forced that with an o-ring and the lock ring which held the old filter.
Not sure it will work, but if it does, it will probably be very good! My main concern is that it will be sucked into the pump, but as air passes freely through, i hope that will not happen. Anyone have any thoughts on that?
Here's the rest of the innards of the part in question:
Tomorrow, i will try and continue on the cart, after having geared my shop back from metal working to woodworking, something which is no small job with my very, VERY limited space!
BillTodd:
--- Quote --- Hi,
1. Would this be a pump for continuous running?
Has long has there is no major leaks, I think it would be ok to run continuous. Touch the casing, you should be able to leave your hand on it. Make sure the pump oil is topped up. Note: you need vacuum pump oil, not motor oil.
There's special oil for this?
--- End quote ---
Apparently, the oil is formulated to have less/fewer short chain molecules that would otherwise evaporate/boil-off in the low pressure area of the pump and cause the oil to thicken.
I have an unopened 1litre bottle of Edwards Hi-Vacuum oil in the shed that you can have for the cost of postage (and an small optional donation to the Royal British legion - given it's November)
Regards,
Bill
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