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Thread: Milking pump for vacuum veneer press?

  1. #1

    Question Milking pump for vacuum veneer press?

    I am making some great connections out here in the country. My neighbor took me to a farm that is being razed for development. He and some other folks got first pick of the stuff there, but I can get if I want it, a large milking vacuum pump. This was a dairy farm.

    It was dark when I saw it, but it looked to have a big honkin motor-like a 3 to 5 hp, and a ballast talk like an air compressor. The pump was obviously not an air compressor pump- it had large lines- like 1 1/2" coming from it. I also picked up this really spacy looking glass receiver bulb- about 14" diameter with glass tubes entering top and bottom. Looks like an extra-terrestrial plumbing fixture...or the place where you put the dilithium crystals in a warp drive...(I know, I know, you need to see a picture...I'll see what I can do)

    I don't know what sort of vacuum a system like this would pull, but do you think it would be enough for a veneer press? It may be that the poor cow udders can't take very many inches of mercury of a vacuum, but you need a lot of volume. Don't know. Always wanted to make a vacuum press, and this may be the just pump for it. I don't know how hard of a vacuum is required for veneering. Also, where do you get the bag that you put your work in?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Baltimore, Md
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    1,785
    Lynn,

    Look up the manufacturer and see if they tell you how much Hg it will pull that'll answer your question.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Columbiana, Ohio
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    You may need more than just the unit you described to draw a vacuum. I drew up on a dairy farm. Our milking machine both sucked and blew. There was a control valve on the lid of the milk bucket and two lines came off the control valve . One line provided suction that was applied to the bucket and to the inside of rubber teat cups to draw the milk into the bucket. However, on the outside on the rubber cups there was a metal shell and the second line pulsed air into the shell to squeeze the cup and did the job your hand would do in squeezing milk out of the teat. But then perhaps the system you have seen works differently. Ray

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    St. Ignatius, MT
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    149
    I'm an old dairy farmer, too. The glass jars were usually calibrated, so you could see how much each cow produced when keep individual animal records. Amazingly enough, they are called 'weigh jars'. The vacumn pump usually ran 3-5 hp, sometimes more, on 220. If I remember right, vacumn was about 12 but for the life of me, I can't remember if it was inches or pounds.......
    Alan & Lynette Mikkelsen, Mountain View Farm Gardens & Fine Woodworking, St. Ignatius, MT. Visitors Welcome!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Sioux Falls, South Dakota
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    196
    I am a current dairy farmer. Today vacuum runs around 14 I believe (I'll check again tonight) but the pump can produce more. There are regulators that keep it at correct levels for the cows.
    The glass jar may have been to measure cows milk production, but if there was only one jar, and it was in the "milk house" it is likely a "receiving jar". A place the milk flow into from the pipeline and was then pumped threw a filter into the "bulk tank" for cooling and storage. I too wonder about this because there are a ton of old pumps out there that are to small for todays dairies...
    Chad
    Better to keep silent and be thought a fool, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Sioux Falls, South Dakota
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    196
    Quote Originally Posted by Ray Moser
    You may need more than just the unit you described to draw a vacuum. I drew up on a dairy farm. Our milking machine both sucked and blew. There was a control valve on the lid of the milk bucket and two lines came off the control valve . One line provided suction that was applied to the bucket and to the inside of rubber teat cups to draw the milk into the bucket. However, on the outside on the rubber cups there was a metal shell and the second line pulsed air into the shell to squeeze the cup and did the job your hand would do in squeezing milk out of the teat. But then perhaps the system you have seen works differently. Ray

    I'm not familiar with any system the that used both vacuum and pressure....For at least the last 30 years it's all vacuum. There is pulsation in the vacuum (as straight vacuum wouldn't work and would be hard on cows). Inside the "shells" is the rubber inflations but it vacuum in there too....
    chad
    Better to keep silent and be thought a fool, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

  7. #7
    Lynn,

    Check out www.surpluscenter.com for surplus inexpensive vacuum pumps and then do a search for West System epoxy or Geogeon Brothers (not sure on this spelling).They have vacuum bagging materials for boat building that will work for veneering.

    Lance

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    N. Central Tn. Allardt. Near Jamestown
    Posts
    37
    Milk pumps are low pressure high volume.

    A/C pumps can be made into vac systems, also Surplus Center (.com) sells some vac pumps.

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