Vaccum Chamber

[guymueller]

What brand and size chamber/pump do you use

 

[lorbay]

8" cactus juice/ Robinair 6.5 cfm
Lin

 

[gimpy]

Waiting for mine to be shipped from Curtis....4 x 20 and I purchased a JB Eliminator Vacuum pump

 

[TattooedTurner]

Cheap chinese made one from ebay, 2.5 gallon chamber with 3.5cfm pump. The pump just died after only 6 months light use... Basically I have a $159 stew pot now so I'm a bit chapped.

 

[Csteck00]

The best stabilizing setup...

I have a 6X12 chamber from Curtis and a 3cfm Robinair pump that has been very busy over he past few months. If you follow Curtis's recipe you won't go wrong

 

[adirondak5]

6" x 12" from Curtis , 5 cfm Robinair pump

 

[Camardelle]

Those of you with larger chambers…could you discuss why you went with the size you did. I'm about to make a jump into casting and stabilizing and was thinking pen blanks and smaller pieces of worthless wood. It seems to me that your chambers would be set up to do much larger pieces. Are you doing larger pieces?

Any guidance would be appreciated. I would rather not buy, and then have to upgrade later.

 

[RobS]

I place a 32 oz mug in the center of my chamber and I place my pen blanks in that. That allows me to use much less cactus juice. I also place an even smaller glass beaker into the mug when using colored cactus juice to reduce the amount of resin I am using even further. Since I do not want to use all of my cactus juice up on one color. It only allows me to run 3 blanks at a time, but its much more economical. The larger chamber leaves you open for stabilizing large parts if you need it.

 

[Camardelle]

I place a 32 oz mug in the center of my chamber

That makes perfect sense and was not something I'd considered. Any no-no's on what kind of mug to use? Does it matter if it's plastic/glass/stainless?

That's a great piece of advice. Thank you!

 

[RobS]

I use a thick glass mug from Walmart. Glass does not react with cactus juice from my experience and its easy to clean up.

 

[Charlie_W]

A friend of mine has a large aluminum commercial kitchen pot with a extra thick plexiglass lid. He used a cardboard milk box to hold the blanks and resin. After saving the unused juice, he just lets the milk box drain till the next use and eventually it goes in the trash.
His large pot will accommodate a large chunk of pinky wood for a bowl.
Works well.