Vacuum Press Question

I am in the market for a vacuum pump and have three questions:

Piston vs rotary vane?

Oil vs Oil-less?

Minimum inches of Mg?

I have seen a lot of product in the $250 - $400 range but really don't know where to start.

Piston vs rotary --- doesn't matter. You want clamping pressure. Who cares how it is produced?

Oil vs oil-less --- doesn't matter much. I've heard people worry that oil might migrate upstream to contaminate your bag. That seems improbable to me. However, there are in-line filters. And the inexpensive approach is to lengthen the hose running from the bag to the pump so any oil has further to go. Use transparent tubing.

Minimum pressure -- oh, 20 inches of mercury or so. For veneering, the key issue is not high pressure, but applying pressure everywhere. Most anything called a vacuum pump will generate enough vacuum to press well.

For my home made vacuum system I have experience with gast pumps, which are rotary but not oiled and weltch pumps that are rotary and oiled. I don't have any experinece with piston vacuum pump, in fact I am not sure I have ever seen one. I think if I were doing this all the time I would opt for the weltch pumps. We use them at work and they can run all day without problems. My gast pump is not that durable. I think the other thing you want to think about is a vacuum switch that turns the pump on or off if it drops below a certain level.
best wishes
lou

Michael, I would suggest you go with one of the established vacuum pressing co.'s From them you will get a pump that will do what you need and it will have an intake filter and necessary limit switch all in one unit. Sometimes you may need as much as 22-26" of vacuum for doing curved panels, these can do that. I'm sure you can save money by shopping around, but consider this, I purchased a system from Vacupress in '93. Except for replacing the pump vanes once, it's still working fine after probably pressing up 20,000 ft. of veneer or more.

Surplus Supply, I believe that's their name is selling a closeout Gast 1/4 horse rotary vane for $89. The only down side, if there is one is that it will only run on 220 volt, which for my use was not a problem.

These pumps are brand new, just discountinued stock. The only way to go.

Steve

Doing a Google search on "Surplus Supply" resulted in 3,340,000 English Pages - but it did it in 0.40 seconds. :p

Could you be a bit more specific. :o I do have 220v available and $89 seems reasonable. ;)

i just finished my setup a few days ago, all with parts from joe www.joewoodworker.com and the 220V pump from the surplus center for $89, runs great. if you want i can send you the wiring diagram as it is a bit harder to do, but easy with my diagram. i might attach a pic in a bit, just need the time to size down the pics

sascha

I would also recommend going the joewoodworker route, however here is the url for surplas supply :surpluscenter.com. You will have to look around for the pumps as I'm not sure where they are located, but know they are there.

Thanks for the link. They have 1,878 in stock. :o

Michael
I have the vacuum pressing system,I got it from Rocklers,pump,bag and all other necessary items to run out of the box. Check out Vacuum Pressing Systems website they have a vacuum pressing forum.


Tom

Sorry for not providing a link earlier.

http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.as...40&catname=air

For future reference the above link will take you directly to the pump.

My first pump worked out of the box but died two weeks later. Without any questions asked they shipped a replacement out the same day I called, and paid shipping both ways. I dropped the bad one in their box, and stuck their return label on it and handed it back to the UPS person.

They also sell vacuum gages, valves, filters, etc. at what appeared to be reasonable prices.

That is a steal on that Gast pump.