New Harbor Freight Vacuum Pump

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
td

td

Banned
Joined
Apr 5, 2007
Messages
275
Location
Dallas, TX, USA.
I am humbled to be such a newby about these things. I am not yet casting under pressure. I thought a compressor could do both V and P. Could you elaborate?

Thanks,
T
 
G

Glass Scratcher

Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2005
Messages
1,199
Location
Atlantic Beach, Florida.
Terry,

For your compressor to generate a vacuum you need to have a venturi "vacuum generator" placed in line on your pressure hose to create the vacuum, or on some compressors you can unscrew the air filter intake, and run a hose from it and pull a vacuum however that can damage a compressor.

These pumps are just for vacuum, they are designed to be used for evacuating freon from your car or household airconditioners, but they are just vacuum pumps.

You can rig a pressure pot for both Pressure and Vacuum. You would need a compressor and a vacuum source (a pump or a venturi). You can rig it very simply with one hose, one valve and a combo pressure/vac guage, or you can put your guages on quick release fittings and just snap them off and on depending on what you are going to use, or you can build a christmas tree lid that has a vacuum hose and a pressure hose and multiple guages, and multiple valves- a steam locomotive isn't nearly as complicated to operate :biggrin:

If you want to try your hand at diy stablizing and dye-ing then vacuum, and a vacuum pump is a handy thing to have.
 
H

holmqer

Local Chapter Leader
Joined
Aug 3, 2007
Messages
1,662
Location
CT, USA.
VisExp said:
I would like a vacuum pump in order to do three things: 1. Hook up to my pressure pot. 2. Hook up to a vacuum bag to do veneer work. 3. Hook up to a vacuum chuck on my lathe.

Would the harbor freight one work for this?
Click to expand...

I doubt that the harbor freight one would work for this as it has a fairly low cfm capacity. It would do fine for the other 2 tasks though.

I use mine with my pressure pot all the time and it works great. I can pull 22" of mercury before its cfm draw so outpaces my compressor that I have to close the valve and let the compressor recharge. With one more shot, I can get the 22" down to 25". I have a 4 gal 4.2 cfm compressor so maybe if I had a bigger compressor, the HF venture would pull strait down to 25" or better.

Since you don't need lots of CFM for veneering, this would work fine.

For a vacuum chuck however, I think you would not have adequate vacuum cfm to outpace leaks and any porosity of the wood.
 
G

Glass Scratcher

Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2005
Messages
1,199
Location
Atlantic Beach, Florida.
Hey Keith,

Sorry I got busy and behind running the workers around this broken-down house, and my "nephew" decided he could be a big help by taking all my packed gear and if 2 or 3 (labeled) boxes weren't quite full, he would dump them together and then use the boxes somewhere else in the house. So my Vacuum guage has gone a roving. If I can find another guage cheap, or find the one I have I plan on comparing the 2 stage 1.5cfm (35micron) pump I have and the HF 2.5cfm (75 micron) single stage pump.

Note to self- order 2 or 3 cheap vac guages from surplus center, just in case of emergencies.

If the pump doesn't quite pull down fast enough I have a broken pancake compressor that the pancake tank will find new life as a vacuum reservoir.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Previous Next
Top Bottom