Pressure Pot Set Up - Which One???

[doberman]

I just bought an HF Pressure Pot and see there are two different ways to set these up per different threads. What are the advantages and disadvantages between these set-ups??

http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24254&SearchTerms=Harbor,Freight

and this one

http://www.penturners.org/forum/top...ID=17134&SearchTerms=pressure,pot,setup,valve

 

[gketell]

The second one looks like it is a pressure-only setup. The first one is both vacuum and pressure.

In Casting: Pressure compresses any trapped air to reduce the size of the bubbles (hopefully to sub-visible). Vacuum removes much of the trapped air so there is less to hide with pressure but is optional.

If you want to do stabilization the most common way is to put the blanks in a tub of stabilizing compound and then vacuum, release, repeat until no more air bubbles come out of the wood, so vacuum is a must. ((So is a clear lid for the system which is not covered by either of the above.))


GK
note that I am the author of the first setup so might be a bit biased.