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convert a tire inflator-type air compressor into a vacuum pump

by drcrash on May 30, 2007

Table of Contents

intro: convert a tire inflator-type air compressor into a vacuum pump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

step 1: open the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

step 2: find the air intake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

step 3: find/make an appropriate hose fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

step 4: prepare the intake for the vacuum fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

step 5: attach the vacuum hose fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

step 6: attach vacuum hose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

step 7: make a hole in the case for the vacuum hose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

step 8: put the case back together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

step 9: cut off tire inflator end of compressed air hose (for now), stow hose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

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intro: convert a tire inflator-type air compressor into a vacuum pump
A vacuum pump is just an air pump, like a compressor, where you use the input side for suction, rather than using the output side for blowing.

Many air compressors make good vacuum pumps if you can find the air intake, enclose it, and attach an appropriate hose or fitting.

In this instructable, I'll show how to convert a 12-volt "tire inflator"-type air compressor into a vacuum pump. This makes a vacuum pump suitable for vacuum bagging
laminates and composites (like fiberglass), or for evacuating a tank for a small vacuum former.

The vacuum created is several times stronger than any vacuum cleaner can produce, and most of the way to a perfect vacuum. (About 25 "inches of mercury" out of a
possible 29.9, or 12.3 pounds per square inch---or 1768 pounds per square foot.)

It is strong enough to achieve professional-quality results for many processes that require vacuum.

I got my little air compressor for $2 at a Goodwill Blue Hanger store (a.k.a. "Goodwill Outlet Store"). New, it would cost about $20. Converting it to a vacuum pump
required a few dollars worth of parts & glue.

In addition to the pump, I used:

a few feet of 1/4" inside diameter braided PVC tubing
a nylon fitting with a hose barb for 1/4" I.D. tubing, and
some J.B. Weld steel-filled epoxy

All of these things are available at home improvement stores.

Since this is a 12-volt device that draws almost 4 amps, it requires a fairly hefty (DC) power supply. I run it off my 6-amp car battery charger. (Or sometimes off of a 12-
volt deep cycle, trolling motor-type battery, for vacuum forming in locations where A.C. power isn't available.)

Thanks to Doug Walsh and his book "Do It Yourself Vacuum Forming for the Hobbyist" for the basic idea.

I've done very similar conversions of "nebulizer" air compressors (for medical equipment) from thrift stores. They're quieter, but don't pull as hard a vacuum. (About 17
inches of mercury or 8 pounds per square inch.) That's still several times harder than a vacuum cleaner can suck, and good for vacuum-bagging things like RC model
airplane wings, but only a little more than half the ideal vacuum.) The upside is that they're quieter and run cooler, and will likely last longer.

NOTES(added in light of comments below):

If you use a really, really cheap tire inflator, such as the $10 "mini air compressor" from Harbor Freight, don't expect too much. Really dirt cheap inflators may only run for
a few minutes before overheating. (Better inflators can run for up to an hour. ) Err on the side of not running your pump for too long at a stretch. If you don't know if it's
rated for more than 15 minutes, only run it for 5 or 10 minutes at a time, giving it 5 minutes to cool down before restarting it. Ideally, you'd like a pump with a heavy finned
aluminum cylinder, a cooling fan, and a powerful motor, rated for continuous long runs. (Really ideally, you'll get it for $2 at the Blue Hanger.) Failing that, be gentle with
your cheap little pump.

Some tips on keeping the workload within your pump's limitations:

For vacuum bagging: (1) don't expect to use this pump for things like full scale airplanes, or to cope with substantial leaks, (2) use a modest-sized vacuum reservoir so
that you don't need to run the pump all the time, or for a long time just to build up vacuum in the reservoir. Either use a vacuum switch to top off the vacuum automatically
now and then, leaving the pump off most of the time, or do it by hand. If the pump is running most of the time, something is wrong.

For vacuum forming: (1) don't expect to empty a 30-gallon water heater tank with this thing. (I use a 7-gallon $20 Wal-Mart air carry tank for my 12 x 18 inch vacuum
formers.) (2) Use a two-stage plumbing system to reduce the load on the vacuum pump and make your small tank go much further. (Like this one, using a vacuum
cleaner to suck most of the air out, and an evacuated tank to pull the plastic down hard: http://www.tk560.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=424 .) (3) Don't run the pump
until it tops out at 25 inches of mercury or so unless you're forming thick plastic around tight details. 20 inches is plenty for most vacuum forming purposes, and the last
few inches take longer, and wear out your pump that much faster.

http://www.instructables.com/id/convert-a-tire-inflator-type-air-compressor-into-a/
http://www.instructables.com/id/convert-a-tire-inflator-type-air-compressor-into-a/
step 1: open the case
Figure out how to open the case, and open it. In this case, I had to remove an end cap by pinching it to release a tab, then unscrew a few screws, and I could take the
two halves of the case apart. I also had to partly unstick some foam strips across both halves at the bottom.

(The way some cases are put together, you may have to remove rubber feet that are glued over the recesses where the case screws are. Both of my nebulizer pumps
were put together that way.)

Inside you'll find an assembly with a little motor, a couple of gears, and a little piston pump. In this picture, the motor is near the center, and the pump cylinder is on the
left, with the compressed air hose coming out near the top.

step 2: find the air intake

Once the case is open, you can flip the motor/pump assembly up and inspect the cylinder to find the air intake---that is, the holes where the air comes into the cylinder
before it's squirted out the compressed air hose.

Some pumps have a hose barb or other fitting connecting to a muffler. If yours does, that's great---you can just use the hose barb that's already there.

This pump just has four little holes in the top of the cylinder. (Actually, there's a little filter under the holes, but we can ignore that.)

Unfortunately, the holes are down in a funny-shaped recess, so we can't just glue a hose barb directly over them. We also want to make sure that the glue doesn't slop
into the holes, so we need a couple more steps to make things fit.

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step 3: find/make an appropriate hose fitting
I chose to use 1/4" inside diameter braided PVC hose as my vacuum line. It's flexible and stands up very well to vacuum, and you can buy it by the foot in the plumbing
department at Lowe's. I bought three or four feet for about a dollar.

To fit the hose, I wanted a hose barb for 1/4" I.D. tubing. There are many fittings (also in the plumbing department) with a hose barb on one end.

I chose a nylon double-ended hose barb (or "butt splice," for connecting two hoses), and cut off the extra barb with a razor knife. That left me with one barb with a flanged
base suitable for gluing down, for about a dollar and a minute's work.

Because of the funny shape of the recess on top of the pump cylinder, I also shaved down two opposite sides of the flange, so that it would fit down in the recess. That
took another minute.

step 4: prepare the intake for the vacuum fitting

To prepare the top of the cylinder for the hose barb, I built a little wall around the intake holes using J.B. Weld high-temperature metal-filled epoxy. (Available at any
hardware store for a few dollars; I used less than a dollar's worth.)

First I prepared the surface, swabbing it with alcohol on cotton swabs to remove any dirt and especially oils.

As you can see in the picture, the J.B. Weld was a bit runny at first, and almost flowed over a couple of the holes. Oops. I should have waited until it set up somewhat, to
a more putty-like consistency. I pushed it back from the holes with a cotton swab a couple of times. Once it was thick enough to stay where I put it, I shaped it into a
circular wall that the hose barb flange could sit on.

Meantime, I mixed up a little more J.B. Weld, so that it would thicken a little, too, in preparation for gluing the hose barb on.

This was the time-consuming part---waiting about hour or so for J.B. Weld to thicken. I had other things to do, though, so I only spent about 20 minutes actually working
on this project. If you're in a big hurry, you could probably use faster-setting epoxy, but I like J.B. Weld because it's fairly good at conducting heat. (I didn't want to insulate
the top of the cylinder too much. That probably doesn't matter, because a pump used for vacuum doesn't heat up as much as one used for compression---highly
compressed air gets very hot---so you might try 30-minute epoxy instead.)

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step 5: attach the vacuum hose fitting
Once the little wall around the air intake was built and reasonably firm, I glued the the hose barb on, with slightly thickened J.B. Weld. I also put more J.B. Weld around
and over the base flange, and let it all set overnight.

step 6: attach vacuum hose

Now we attach the vacuum hose by working it over the hose barb, and the motor/pump assembly back where it belongs, more or less.

You don't generally need a hose clamp to hold it tightly to the barb, if your hose is fairly rubbery. (That's one reason I chose the flexible PVC.) Vacuum will tend to suck
the hose inward onto the hose barb, making a seal, rather than stretching it outward and making a leak.

Once the hose is in place, you need to figure out how to route it out of the case.

For this pump, there isn't much room to route the hose through the case without kinking the hose or stressing the hose barb, so I chose to just run the vacuum line
straight out the top.

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step 7: make a hole in the case for the vacuum hose
I made a hole in the top of the case to run the hose through.

This was easy, since the hole I wanted was at the seam between the halves of the case. I just used nippers to make roughly semicircular holes at each of the mating
edges, so that they'd make a roughly round hole when put together.

step 8: put the case back together

Then I nestled the pump assembly fully in its place, mated the case halves with the hole around the hose, and screwed the halves back together. Then I pushed the end
cap back on the end until the retention tabs clicked.

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step 9: cut off tire inflator end of compressed air hose (for now), stow hose
I didn't want the tire inflator fitting on the compressed air hose restricting the air flow through the pump, so I cut the hose near that end.

(If I ever want to use the pump for inflating tires, I can splice it back together, using the same kind of double-ended barb shown before.)

Then I coiled up the hose and stowed it in the hose-and-cord storage compartment.

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Comments
50 comments Add Comment view all 56 comments

epogee.co.uk says: Sep 20, 2008. 1:46 PM REPLY

Not sure if you have problems with the nozzles working their way out of the 'liquid metal' eventually, with all the vibration etc. Here's an idea to make it more
secure:

Take a large pop rivet. Hammer the pin out of the middle. Set the flange on top of the air-inlet of the compresor. Apply chemical metal over the top. The only
way it will come out is by pulling all of the chemical metal with it.

My compressor only had one inlet hole. I used the pin from the rivet to line up the holes before the chemical metal had gone hard.

008 says: Jun 14, 2008. 11:53 PM REPLY

You're lucky the valve is in an easily accessible area. A few years ago I needed a vacuum pump and had 2 of these compressors sitting in the garage. Both
of them use a valve that's right on the piston, where the inlet is actually through the bottom of the piston and the case opening. I went with a modified bicycle
pump instead (an instructable in its own) for a little while until I broke down and just bought a used medical vacuum pump from the local classifieds. 26" of
vacuum in a 2-foot long 6" ABS pipe with a flick of a switch.

Esmagamus says: Jun 14, 2008. 8:11 PM REPLY

Congratulations on this well made instructable. If you have problems with, power supply, do as I did: go to the woods where some people throw away
refrigerators. I've got a 300 W Bosch refrigerator compressor that I used once as a vacuum pump and will be part of my beefed-up party cooler.

PKM says: Mar 19, 2008. 11:23 AM REPLY

Wow.. I had no idea these compressors were so simple on the inside. If you weren't afraid of a little hacking and weren't bothered whether the original case
went back together, could you not solder/braze your own fins (ideally thick sheet copper I guess) to the cylinder, add a CPU or case fan to cool the motor,
and maybe even drill holes in the motor casing to help the cooling? Of course, if pulling a near-complete vacuum requires a lot more motor torque than the
original usage then the thing's going to overheat eventually whatever you do, but it should at least help to increase the duty cycle.

TheMadScientist says: May 29, 2008. 6:13 PM REPLY

in theory, yes, but finding that one third inch thick copper is approximately 25 bucks for 6 inches square, its not practical on larger ones...

PKM says: May 30, 2008. 4:55 AM REPLY

A good point- sheet copper is probably way to expensive to use like this, perhaps puling heatsinks from scrap computers might be a better way to
go? Copper prices are having some weird effects in this country: the lowest denomination "copper" coins are worth 1.5 times their face value as
scrap metal despite only being copper-plated steel, and there have been one or two interruptions to railway services as people steal signalling
cables...

TheMadScientist says: May 29, 2008. 6:10 PM REPLY

that's 1/4 atmosphere, correct alex? uhh, with this wimpy little thing, probably not... I use an air compressor cylinder unit with something like a five
horsepower electrical motor, it stood about 2 feet tall, one wide, 1.5 long, and has fins radiating from the center...this seems like it'd be nice for liquid
transfer... but its not gonna make water boil at room temperature or anything like that...

alexhalford says: May 23, 2008. 10:59 AM REPLY

Will this generate a vacuum of 27kPa???

Great instructible

Alex Halford

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 budman1404 says: Apr 27, 2008. 5:02 AM REPLY
The answer is...an oxygen concentrator! I`m not sure however what the question is. I work for a home medical equipment co., if we have a concentrator with
too many hours or just will not come up to snuff, we throw them away! Check with your local D.M.E. ( durable medical equipment) supplier and they may just
make a wealth of high tech. parts available to you for naught. These things have "product tanks" ( think large Pringles cannisters) inside them, 4 way valves
that are designed to last FOREVER and more specialty plumbing than you can shake a bag of hose clamps at. Look around, we have had folks dump these
off at our back door. Try to talk to a lowly "tech.", they might just give it to you because to them it is just clutter.

drhoff says: Apr 6, 2008. 4:34 PM REPLY

First, I'd like to say great job on this and your other instructables. They are very nicely done. Second, I would like to add a comment about this project. Some
models of little inflators like this one, will not work for this method. The Tool Shop version I bought has a different air intake setup. The intake is built into the
piston of the pump, much like a bike pump would be constructed. But the way it is built, you can't flip it around to make it suck air in.

blue beast says: Jan 26, 2008. 1:38 PM REPLY

I use a window ac unit compressor for a vacuum pump/
air compressor!! It will get up to 150 psi pretty
quick. It really can't be used for painting or anything
that needs dry air(unless ypou get a seperator) It is
cheap since you can find window units on the curb that
are usually empty of freon. I connect the input and
output every so often and let it circulate oil that
I have in a can with connections on it, just to keep
it well oiled. If you are going to use it for quite
a bit of time a few drops of oil in the intake will
help it last. OF course a automotive york ac comp
will last forever since the oil supply is seperate
all you need is a 110 volt motor with a pully and
a belt mounted and either weld the clutch or make
a 12v circuit and have it activate the clutch on
demand or when the pressure drops in your tank!!

lemonie says: May 31, 2007. 2:48 PM REPLY

Running pumps in series can give you you higer vaccum.
At only $2 I'd have a go at backing this up with another pump and see what it will suck.

drcrash says: May 31, 2007. 7:13 PM REPLY

I've been thinking about that, and may try it with the nebulizer pumps, where the boost in vacuum level would be particularly useful.

I'm not sure what the issues are there, and whether I can just pipe the output of one into the input of the other and get any benefit. Unfortunately, I don't
thinkk so---If I do that, the first one will have much greater pressure differential between the top of the piston (where the vacuum is hardest) and the
bottom (which is at ambient air pressure). Having a second pump sucking from its exaust would make it easier to blow, when it pushes up on the piston,
but wouldn't make it easier to suck, when the exhaust check valve is closed and it has to pull the piston down to create vacuum.

Alternatively, I could put the first one in a box, so that it draws in air through a tube through a hole in the box, and exhausts into the box... and suck the
air out of the box with the other. Because the 2nd pump would lower the ambient air pressure around the first one, the first one wouldn't have to strain so
hard to pull the piston down and create vacuum.

The problem with that scheme is cooling. Putting the first pump in a box would interfere with its cooling fan's ability to cool the cylinder.

My understanding is that it works pretty well to put high-volume/low-vacuum blowers like vacuum cleaner motor/pump assemblies in series, with the first
one in a box, because they typically blow large enough volumes of air (at low enough vacuum) that the first pump is cooled by its own exhaust, and the
air is not so rarefied that it doesn't cool reasonably well. (For vacuum forming, anyway, where there's good airflow except fairly briefly during forming.)

It's not clear to me that that will work well for lower-volume/higher-vacuum piston pumps, which you typically run for much longer (to evacuate a tank).
After most of the air has been pulled out, but while there's still a lot of pumping before you reach maximum vacuum, he first pump will be running in a box
of slow-moving, rarefied air, and may not be cooled effectively enough. You could fix that, but it would be more complicated.

awizardalso says: Dec 5, 2007. 9:54 PM REPLY

Not quite sure where I'm jumping into this, but for a serious, cheap vacuum pump, try an old refrigerator compressor. Mine draws about 25-27 in Hg
(depends how hard I tap on the gauge). The compressor can be had for next to nothing, and the associated hardware can be bought relatively cheap.
The gauge and a couple ball valves were the most expensive (less than $20). Also works as a compressor (supposedly up to 300psi though at very
low volume) and works well for bicycle tires in a couple minutes.

lemonie says: Jun 1, 2007. 1:31 PM REPLY

Diffusion and turbomolecular pumps are always backed up by e.g. a vane pump. I had use of a multi-head diaphragm pump, which I had several
heads (maybe six? some were in parallel) in series, pulling ~0.1mm Hg. Don't worry about the details, you've got reservoirs in the connective tubing.

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 drcrash says: Jun 2, 2007. 8:10 AM REPLY
I'm not sure what you're telling me not to worry about.

The problem I am (was?) concerned about isn't about whether there are reservoirs, but whether the higher vacuum in the first pump's cylinder
puts too much load on its motor.

If the limitation on a single pump was that it didn't have enough torque to pull the piston down against a full vacuum, having another pump
sucking on its output port wouldn't help. There'd still be a whole atmosphere of pressure differential across the piston. (Vacuum on the top side,
ambient air pressure on the bottom.)

But now that I think about it, that's probably not the problem at all. These pumps can create several atmospheres of pressure, so they must have
enough torque to deal with a full vacuum. (Unless there's some asymmetrical thing going on with most of the force being applied on the upstroke,
and little on the downstroke, but it doesn't look like there's any mechanism for that. It's just a regular gears-and-crankshaft setup.) In normal
(compressor) use, they deal with pressure differentials across the piston of several atmospheres.

I guess what limits the performance is some kind of leakage, either backward through the check valves, or around the piston into the cylinder
from the outside, or maybe a slow engineered-in leak to "unload" the pump when it's off, so that it can restart under pressure. Hmmm...

If it's a leak around the piston from the outside, a second pump pulling on the output port might not help much. But if it's momentary backward
flow through the output check valve at the moment it's shutting, it might help a lot. Rarefying the air might reduce the effective volume of air
leaked backwards. (Assuming they're spring-loaded; if they rely on the force of air to shut them quickly, rarefying the air may just make them shut
slower, and still leak a comparable amount of air.)

Interesting. I guess I'll just have to try it.

(Problem is, I don't really want to know if it works in practice---I want to know if it works in theory :-) I have enough vacuum pumps myself, and I'm
mostly trying to figure out if this is a fairly reliable hack to recommend to others.)

Myself says: Jun 6, 2007. 2:03 AM REPLY

I think the limiting factor is the compression ratio. As your piston comes up to top dead center, there has to be enough air in the cylinder to
push the exhaust valve open. As you pull down to a harder vacuum, the rarefied air density multiplied by your compression ratio isn't sufficient
to open the valve and make progress.

It just occurred to me that you could suck a bit of liquid into the system, then keep the pump vertical so it doesn't dribble out. That would take
up the slack space in the cylinder without crushing the valves. The trouble is that if you introduce too much liquid, it'll either stall the motor or
destroy a valve. You could try a current-limited supply, or turning the mechanism manually.

If the liquid technique works, try wax or plaster to make a self-forming piston head space-taker-upper.

drcrash says: Jun 6, 2007. 4:15 PM REPLY

Interesting theory & suggestions. Thanks.

Unfortunately, I'm trying to come up with easy and non-scary instructions, and I want to use the pump as it is (and as others are likely to
mod similar pumps) to test how much use I can get out of it... I think I'll keep it simple and report back on how useful the simple mod is.

I'm not sure what the effect of a current-limited supply would be. Could you explain? (Just curious... seems a little too out there to
incorporate into this instructable.) Are you suggesting one that would use a lower-than-standard voltage sometimes, when the resistance
is low, or one that would use a higher-than-standard voltage sometimes, when the resistance is high?

(I'm actually not sure whether my car charger is already running in a current-limited mode when I have it on "6 amps" to run this pump,
and it's drawing about 4. It isn't hitting the hard limit of 6, but I'm not sure what the battery-charging logic is actually doing. I initially
assumed it would just run at its maximum charging voltage, around 14 volts, if the amps were below 6, but I really don't know.)

Myself says: Jun 7, 2007. 2:23 AM REPLY

Addendum to the current-limiting comment: If your pump motor draws 4 amps, then you can bet it heats up nicely on 4 amps even
running at full speed with its fan moving plenty of air over it. If you stall it, it'll continue to draw 4 amps and get hot, but with nowhere to
dump the heat, it'll burn out. (4 amps at 12 volts is 48 watts, lots of heat!)

If I were trying to fill the cylinder void with water or wax or something, I'd use a 1-amp wall-wart to turn the motor without supplying
enough energy (only 12 watts) to overheat it very quickly if I did something that stopped it from turning.

glorybe says: Dec 1, 2007. 4:19 PM REPLY

Water is the last thing you want to introduce into the system. Water can not exist in a vacuum and it causes massive effort to gas
off and be extracted by the pump.
One way to draw down a system quickly is to use several tanks in parallel. Imagine a ten gallon tank at full vacuum.Open the valve
and the tiny amount of air in the subject area will draw down sharply and suddenly. Close the valve on that tank. It will be easy to
evacuate as so little air is now inside it. Open the valve to a second tank and the tiny sum left in the subject area will now flow into
tank number two. The advantage is that time is on your side. It may take several hours to evacuate a large tank and all of that
effort is concentrated into a second or two when you open that valve. If you have a leak free system you can repeat the process.
You can also use several more tanks in parallel, one at a time.
Do keep in mind that high vacuum systems have built in dangers. A containment such as the classic bell jar can implode sending
glass at high speed for quite some distance.

http://www.instructables.com/id/convert-a-tire-inflator-type-air-compressor-into-a/
 Myself says: Jun 6, 2007. 6:28 PM REPLY
DC motor torque is limited by current. If you physically stop a motor, it'll draw maximum current while trying to break the stall. That
means maximum heat in the windings, and of course the cooling fan isn't spinning. By using a current-limited supply, you reduce the
motor's ability to burn itself out. Also, you reduce the torque it can generate, so if the piston slaps against a wall of incompressible
liquid, you're less likely to snap a shaft, spin a pressed-on gear, or crack a casting.

Your car charger's 6-amp setting is good for 6 amps continuously, and probably doesn't incorporate any hard current limiting. It's
probably capable of 10 for short periods into a dead short, before tripping its thermal overload.

drcrash says: Jun 2, 2007. 9:33 PM REPLY

I tried the two nebulizer pumps in series today, with one sucking from the other's exhaust, and it didn't help much. The vacuum was about the
same as the stronger of the two alone, maybe an inch higher.

I'm not sure what the problem there is.

static says: Jul 2, 2007. 3:18 PM REPLY

In the event you expecting two pumps in series to multiply the draw a lot, respectfully the problem is in your expectation. Ponder it for
awhile, draw the airflow diagram on paper if necessary, to help visualize it. There is a straight line between the intake of pump one to the
exhaust of pump two. The draw can't be appreciably higher that the one with higher draw when used alone.

mefromliny says: Nov 14, 2007. 1:51 PM REPLY

Great breakdown, but you might want to score (scratch up) the area of the intake before you add your glue, etc, to get a better leak proof seal. Thanks again,
Ken

lsloan says: Nov 1, 2007. 7:08 AM REPLY

I like this project. And Dr. Crash has a face you can trust. :)

callmeshane says: Oct 20, 2007. 9:51 PM REPLY

A clevera thought..... I have a Kompressor... a widdle home economy job that will probably explode way before the corrosion inside ever becomes visible...

Anyway.... These things BLOW to 100 psi and probably higher... if you fiddled most unwisely with the cut of point... (yes the tanks are skin of the teeth cheap
- perhaps they are relying upon the skin of the teeth and uncared for motors to crap out before the tank goes bang.... anyway)

The humble home pox 2HP compressor, the inlet filter screws off... = a high volume and high pressure drop vacuum pump...

For very high vacuums Hmmmm just mix a little teflon motor oil treatment into the compressor lube... should stop the issue of the oil flashing off the cylinder
walls...= insufficient lubrication.

Belleye says: May 31, 2007. 9:06 PM REPLY

Awesome, now I will be able to make my own heatpipes, well once I get a vacuum gauge.

drcrash says: May 31, 2007. 9:38 PM REPLY

You can get vacuum gauges cheap from NoShok, on eBay. About $3.50 each plus a few dollars shipping. (Not much more shipping for two; I got two and
thought it was a really good deal.) They work.

BTW, what's a heatpipe?

Belleye says: May 31, 2007. 10:20 PM REPLY

heatpipes are used in computers for cooling, basically its a copper tube with water in a vacuum so it boils off at low temps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heatpipe

drcrash says: Jun 1, 2007. 7:10 AM REPLY

Oh, those heatpipes. (Thanks.)

I'm wondering if you need a vacuum pump to make one of those at all. I'd think you could just fill it with hot steam and seal it, so that when the
steam cooled down and mostly condensed to liquid water, you'd get vacuum.

Using a vacuum pump might be less tricky, and safer, but just sealing in some steam would be a neat hack.

static says: Jul 2, 2007. 4:12 PM REPLY

The Wiki article we where directed to does say;
"When making heat pipes, there is no need to create a vacuum in the pipe. One simply boils the working fluid in the heat pipe until the
resulting vapour has purged the non condensing gases from the pipe and then seals the end."

A far as the heat pipes go, it reads like they need to be engineered to a gnat's ass. That's just as well, where they cant cool below ambient
temperature I wouldn't have an application for them.

http://www.instructables.com/id/convert-a-tire-inflator-type-air-compressor-into-a/
 Belleye says: Jun 3, 2007. 6:16 AM REPLY
It would be easier to control the pressure and in turn the boiling/condensation temps using a vacuum pump and gauge. You wouldn't want the
water to boil at room temp or you won't get any condensation to replace the water which would result in the magic blue smoke escaping.

texabyte says: Aug 31, 2007. 6:20 AM REPLY

i wish my mac laptop had abetter cooling system and it gets well over 130* F {{{
and it burns
}}}

Subconscionaut says: Jun 24, 2007. 5:10 PM REPLY

question.... would this be applicable for evacuation (debubbling) of silicone with a
vacuum-bell table for moldmaking small parts, say, for lost wax casting or the like? I'm talking about fairly high viscosity tin silicone, 1065 and the like(the
blue/green stuff)

drcrash says: Jun 26, 2007. 12:21 PM REPLY

Besides whether you get high enough vacuum, there's also the issue of whether you get enough flow to degas your stuff quickly enough. You don't want
your mold compound to set up while you're waiting for the pump to suck the air out.

One way to get enough flow would be to use a vacuum tank in a two-stage setup, like I use for my vacuum former. (For degassing or bagging, it can be
simpler because it doesn't have to do things very fast, automatically.) For that, you need a valve that can close the tank off but leave the pump
connected.

You can evacuate the tank ahead of time, leave the valve to it open, then open the main valve to the vacuum chamber. Most of the air will get sucked
into the tank, because it can suck a lot faster than the pump. That will pollute the tank, so then you close the valve to the tank, while leaving the path
between the pump and the vacuum chamber open. The pump can then suck most of the rest of the air out of the chamber.

(You need a valve to close off the tank after it's done its job, so that the pump doesn't just suck the air back out of the tank, instead of pulling the vacuum
in the chamber down further.)

You can use several stages like this, if you have several small tanks, evacuating them all ahead of time, and just opening and closing the valves one
after the other to pull more and more air out of the chamber.

Of course, it's also good to have the right size chamber, without too much extra air in it to suck out.

Subconscionaut says: Jul 1, 2007. 4:51 PM REPLY

I've never tried evac and vibration with a silicone, but it really has worked well for the resin-augmented and specialty stone mixes, for example, Die-
Keen (green dental stone) We had a lovely set up with a vac table, dental vibrator, and Big lexan bell jar. you couldn't find a bubble on those teeth
with 3 hours and an optivisor! I just can't afford the crazy price tags for most of these groovy pumps, so I'm looking for a midrange, maybe a Harbor
Freight Pancake? I don't know too much about how to find the intakes yet.Thanks for the advice!

drcrash says: Jul 1, 2007. 5:26 PM REPLY

Those harbor freight pumps are tempting when they put them on sale for $60. (Seems like most things at HF goes on sale every couple of
months.) I'm tempted to get one just to find out how good a vacuum pump it would make.

(If anybody else does, I'd be happy to offer any advice I can on the conversion, if you'll report on how it works out for you.)

On the other hand, there are some good surplus (unused) pumps on sale at www.build-stuff.com and www.surpluscenter.com right now, for
around $100, shipped. The one at Build Stuff is a 4.5 CFM Thomas oilless piston pump that runs on 120V, and the one at Surplus Center is a
Gast oilless rotary vane pump that runs on 220V. I think they're only rated at around 26 in Hg, not the 28 recommended for degassing some very
viscous silicones, but they're both good pumps at great prices.

drcrash says: Jun 25, 2007. 5:20 AM REPLY

I'm not sure. Some of the higher-viscosity silicones are supposed to be degassed at 28 inches of mercury. To actually do that, you generally need a two-
stage pump, like the rotary vane pumps that are used for evacuating refrigerant systems.

On the other hand, somebody recently told me that they use a pump that only gets to 24 in Hg., and it works okay for them even though the instructions
say you need 28.

The last few inches of mercury can make a difference for degassing. If you take 80 percent of the air out, the bubbles in the fluid will expand to 5x their
normal size, and be more likely to float out. But if you take 80 percent of the remainder from that out (96 percent of the original air), they'll expand
another 5x, to 25x their original size, so that even tiny bubbles will float out.

If you try it, let me know how it works for you. I'd expect it to work for low to medium viscosity stuff, but be marginal for really high viscosities. Combining
vacuum and vibration may help. (To loosen the bubbles that aren't quite big enough to float free of their own accord.)

dsi1 says: Jun 25, 2007. 10:02 PM REPLY

Thanks for the idea, I've been looking for a high vac/low flow pump for years to clean out hearing aids - this uses a hollow needle tip to vacuum out the inside
of the miniature speaker. I've been using a ac dryer pump but was looking for something smaller and cheaper and capable of drawing at least 23" Hg, boy,
am I dumb, these things are all over the place! Thanks again.

http://www.instructables.com/id/convert-a-tire-inflator-type-air-compressor-into-a/
 drcrash says: Jun 21, 2007. 10:26 AM REPLY
For anybody who wants to make vacuum the old-fashioned way, I published another instructable on making a manual vacuum pump from a $10 bike pump
and about $8 worth of other parts:

http://www.instructables.com/id/EA58LR1F35J1I9N/

That's suitable for vacuum bagging small composites (RC planes, skateboards, modestly larger stuff).

If you use it for a vacuum former, it will work, and you can form thick plastics (like 1/4"). If you do it very often, though, you'll build up some impressive
biceps.

The bicycle pump's not hard to pump, even near its limit of around 24 inches of mercury, but it takes a several minutes of pumping to evacuate a one-cubic-
foot tank down to 20 in. Hg or more. Not something you want to do more than a few times a day. (Ask me how I know.)

A one-gallon vacuum reservoir for a vacuum bag would only take about a minute, and since you don't do that very often, that seems like a good application.
(My pump is considerably faster than the "Thin Air Press" pump they sell for bagging skateboards and small woodworking projects; that's just a little wine-
bottle evacuation pump adapted for bagging.)

trebuchet03 says: May 31, 2007. 10:51 AM REPLY

Cool project :)

Are you worried about lubrication at all? I guess given the relative low cost of this, it's not such a big deal for the cylinder to lose compression - I'm just
curious if you've done anything for that.

drcrash says: May 31, 2007. 11:59 AM REPLY

These are oilless pumps, and my impression is that their self-lubricating plastic parts work either way. I haven't verified that, but I do know that various
people have modded oilless piston pumps in this way and gotten a lot of use out of them. (Diaphragm pumps, too.)

I have also looked up tech specs on some bigger oilless piston compressors and found that the ones I looked up were safe for vacuum. For example, I
was eying Thomas compressor on eBay, and looked up the nitty-gritty technical specs, and found it was rated for vacuum, even though the marketing
brochures didn't mention it.

I also contacted Gast about another pump I was eyeing, but couldn't find that data for, and their technical staff wrote back that yes, it'd be perfectly fine to
use it as a vacuum pump. It'd "only" pull about .8 or .9 atmospheres of vacuum, but using it that way wouldn't hurt the pump at all---in fact it'd last longer
than if used as a compressor, because it would run cooler.

I wouldn't want to risk a big expensive pump by modding it this way, without finding out from the manufacturer (one way or another) that it's safe, but my
impression is that it often is. Unfortunately, for many inexpensive compressors, it's hard to figure out who actually made the pump, or its model number,
and track down the info to find out if the mod is safe.

If I had a bigger oilless piston compressor lying around that I didn't have a better use for, I might try it , and just risk ruining it. I know people who have
taken the chance and gotten years of vacuum pump use out of their compressors, but there are no guarantees.

(Of course, I'll be very interested to see if anybody follows up with "I tried it and my pump burned out.")

trebuchet03 says: May 31, 2007. 4:26 PM REPLY

(Of course, I'll be very interested to see if anybody follows up with "I tried it and my pump burned out.")

What's why I posted :p Because I tried this with a $5 HF 12V compressor... And it burned out -- releasing the magic smoke :p

drcrash says: May 31, 2007. 6:51 PM REPLY

That's interesting. Do you know which model it was? How did you run it, and for how long, and how did it fail? (Also, how did you power it?)

The "Mini air compressor" that's regularly 9.99 at HF looks like junk.. I wouldn't necessarily expect it to work for more than a few minutes at a time
without overheating, for any purpose. (I'm guessing that what you got for $5 was one of those, on sale...?)

Hmm... I just looked, and the manual for that one says not to run it for more than 15 minutes continuously.

The Wagan that's regularly $20 looks better. It's rated to run for up to an hour continuously, and I'd hope (but don't know) that it would work for
vacuum as well.

Ideally, you probably want one with a heavy aluminum cylinder, cooling fins, a fan, and a hefty motor.

The nebulizer pumps I've got have all that, and seem generally well-made, as well as having somewhat larger displacement. They have 200-250
watt motors (around 2 amps at 110-120V) compared to my tire inflator's 40-50 watts (around 4 amps at around 12-14 volts).

trebuchet03 says: May 31, 2007. 7:29 PM REPLY

It is a piece of garbage :p It gets incredibly hot and if the piston doesn't seize, the weakened plastic gear train strips apart :p About 10 minutes
using as a compressor killed it... About 30 or so minutes as a vacuum killed it the same way... It smokes just before it's going to die :p

I suspect injecting a light lubricant will help :D

http://www.instructables.com/id/convert-a-tire-inflator-type-air-compressor-into-a/
 drcrash says: Jun 6, 2007. 4:25 PM REPLY
I'm leery of putting lubricants in there. Some common lubricants (like motor oil) will degrade common self-lubricating plastics, and destroy
a pump. (Oilless pumps generally come with warnings not to try to lubricate them.)

I'm guessing that there are lubricants that wouldn't hurt it, and might help, but without knowing exactly what plastics are in there, and what
they're resistant to, I'd rather not risk it. (Especially since that's the sort of thing most others aren't likely to want to deal with, and it would
mess up my little experiment to see how much use I can get out of it with the simple mod in the instructable.)

Besides, wouldn't that void the warranty? :-)

Taotaoba says: May 31, 2007. 11:19 AM REPLY

What is the absolute pressure it can make? You mentioned "perfect vacuum. (About 25 "inches of mercury" out of a possible 29.9". Do you mean the
absolute pressure is only 4.9 inches of mercury?

BTW, great instructable! Thanks for sharing.

drcrash says: May 31, 2007. 11:46 AM REPLY

Yes, the absolute pressure is only a few inches of mercury, and even fewer PSI.

My measurements so far have been approximate, because I'm using a beaten-up vacuum gauge that may be off by a couple of inches. I'll re-do them
sometime with my better gauge, when I get around to doing some vacuum pump races.

(The actual reading has been over 26 inches of mercury and still climbing very slowly when I've shut it off... I do that because pumping slows
exponentially as the air in the tank gets rarefied, and there's not much point in wearing out the pump that much faster, for negligible gains in the effective
force for vacuum forming.)

My general impression is that if a compressor can produce several atmospheres of pressure (say 100 PSI or more) it can produce over 20 inches of
mercury used as a vacuum pump. These little inflators are generally advertised as producing ridiculously high pressures, like 250 PSI (or 15
atmospheres), and should be good for 25 or more inches.

Basically, the pump has to pump faster than air leaks the wrong way through its valves and seals, so a higher-PSI pump also generally pulls a harder
vacuum. (I'm not sure if this logic is quite correct, or whether it applies to non-piston pumps.)

Toward the other end, you have things like nebulizer pumps, which only produce 35-50 PSI positive pressure, and only pull a bit more than half an
atmosphere of vacuum.

(They're nice well-built, quiet pumps, though, and fairly easy to find for next to nothing; people get them for medical reasons and their insurance pays
$100 or so for them, and then they dump them at Goodwill when they don't need them anymore. So if you only need 8 PSI or so, they're an amazing
deal. The two I've got were trivial to convert, because they already have hose barbs on the intake sides. For $2-5, and 5 minutes modding the case,
they're hard to beat. Or if you need an airbrush compressor, they'd probably work with no mods at all.)

Taotaoba says: Jun 1, 2007. 7:08 AM REPLY

That's amazing. Thank you very much for your detailed information. I'd try some when I got a chance.

fegundez1 says: Jun 1, 2007. 6:30 AM REPLY

wouldn't using a tank make it easier to run more than one pump at a time?putting one way valves where they attach to the tank so they don't work against
each other?

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