How do you clean off dried Cactus Juice?

I have done a miserable job keeping my vacuum tank and top clean. The top is clear so you an observe the bubbles being pulled from the wood. I have a stainless steel tank so I cannot observe through the sides. Over time the uncleaned off Cactus Juice has dried on the top and I cannot see through it to observe the bubbles - Is there any way to clean it off and restore visibility?

If you don't get an answer here, post the question in the TurnTex facebook group.

Curtis Seebeck is really good about answering questions.

Is the top glass or some king of plastic? If it's glass, what dissolves cactus juice?

Mike

Mike said:

Is the top glass or some king of plastic? If it's glass, what dissolves cactus juice?

Mike

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top is plastic!

What kind of plastic ? Did you make it , or buy it ? I suspect you are in for a new lid .

You probably already figured this out, but it's always a good idea to rinse out your chamber after each use. Tap water works well for this.

Plastic definitely has an expiry date when used for stabilizing with Cactus Juice. I would buy a glass cover and replace the plastic one. Glass is much better for this purpose.

Most of those are micro-fractures caused by the cactus juice fumes reacting with the plastic. I know this by experience and eventually will need to replace with a tempered glass lid as well

Thanks for all the input - looks like I am in for a replacement!

not to hijack this thread but I have the same pot and need a new lid also from the fractures. Where would you get a glass one?

I am looking! First one to post with a new one is the winner!!

Edit: Links to a glass lid supplier are near the end of this post. - Dave

Although many, many members are successful with plastic lids, even really good ones still scare me to death.

My first vacuum chamber was a stainless steel pot with an Acrylic (Plexiglass) lid. There was a hole drilled through it for the plumbing to go through (supply/exhaust, gauge, etc.). On my second use the lid imploded. In addition to the big "Bang!", It knocked my vacuum pump off the table, busted the vacuum gauge, and splashed Cactus Juice on the floor, on my pump, and on a bunch of other stuff. The experience almost soured me completely on home stabilizing.



When I got up enough nerve to give it another try, I replaced the imploded lid with one I made from Lexan (polycarbonate). It was still plastic and I still drilled a hole through it for plumbing, but Lexan it is much tougher and a lot less brittle so it can withstand the vacuum more. I did re-use the red silicone gasket though. After a few uses though it looked like the inside surface was getting those little microcracks as someone mentioned. Fearing another implosion I decided I needed something even more robust.

What I wound up with was a tempered glass lid with no holes drilled in it. To get the plumbing into the chamber, I drilled a hole near the top of the stainless steel pot. It is a much better and safer arrangement since holes drilled into plastics are usually inherent points of weakness.



After the whole ordeal, I'm still nervous when I use the thing, but at least I am comfortable enough to be in the same room with it when it is running. I also wasted a lot of time, money, and effort buying a thick sheet of Lexan and cutting it to size for the intermediate version. I wish I would have saved myself the money and grief and just bought the round tempered glass one to start with.

This is why I highly recommend replacing it with a glass lid. I ordered mine from BVV (Building Vision and Variety). Mine was 10.75-inches by 3/4 inches thick and was manufactured by "Glass Vac". The company sells all kinds of scientific lab type equipment. - Dave

Thank you Dave! I appreciate the explanation and sourcing info! Will be checking that out!!

@egnald can you post a pic of the side of the pot where this rolled the hole for the plumbing? How did you seal that off? Thanks so much for the link also

I worked in the semiconductor industry for about 40 years. In one for the places I worked, we needed a vacuum vessel for leak checking an assembly. Vessel was about 12" deep and 10" in diameter. Myself and others recommended that our welder (world class welder, tig, mig or stick, welded nuclear submarines before) build one from SS. They went cheap and had the poly shop build it from a white poly we used for wet sinks. First use it imploded before it was even pumped down completely. Implosion destroyed the vessel and damaged a $10,000 assembly. Very fortunate no one was injured. A few days later we had a SS vessel built by the welder. 3/8" wall 10" diameter SS tubing and 3/8" plates . Plastic like that doesn't have the strength, especially if it is repeatedly cycled from vacuum to atmosphere, or atmosphere to pressure. I would use the tempered glass.

Mike

Bean_Counter said:

can you post a pic of the side of the pot where this rolled the hole for the plumbing? How did you seal that off?

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Here are some pictures. I drilled the hole pretty close to the top of the stainless steel chamber using a step drill bit made for drilling thin metals. The plumbing was essentially re-used from the original along with some extra fittings and stuff that I picked up at one of our local hardware stores. (the blue thing is just a muffler to help cut down the noise when I let air back in with the red handled ball valve. If I remember correctly, the gasket material I used between the pot and the big washers were large rubber washers that I also got from the hardware store. I think I might have had to drill the washers out a little so they would fit over the fittings. - Dave

PS Since my vacuum pump sits close to the pot I added a thin insulation blanket (foil covered bubble wrap) to it just to insure that the heat from the vacuum pump couldn't heat my cactus juice up too much - probably overkill though since CJ needs to be about 190F to cure.

(Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them)

The Drill Bit:


The hole from the outside of the pot:


The hole from the inside of the pot: