Do-everything Vacuum pump?

[Paul M]

anyone?

[Chris Jenkins Lame Horse Instruments]

Paul,

We use a lot of vacuum to do all of the tasks you mentioned. I have found almost any pump will work, some just work much faster than others, some run much more than others. It is pretty easy to find medical surplus vacuum pumps around, and I have found all of those acceptable. If you can put a fairly large reservoir between the pump and the bag, table, or whatever you are needing to pull a vacuum into, it can compensate a whole lot for having a pretty small pump. For glue ups laminated tops, sides, bridges, etc, it does not take near as large a pump as it does for something like a vacuum table for a cnc. A small pump will hold a guitar on a vacuum work fixture.

All that said, buy the biggest one you can find and afford. Hook it up with the biggest reservoir practical. Use the instructions at: https://www.veneersupplies.com/pages/DIY__Vacuum__Press.html to make the system turn on and shut off at your desired amount of vacuum (you can have too much vacuum). These guys sell everything you will need, including fittings, gauges, bags, etc.

Chris

[Paul M]

Chris the medical pumps I saw were around 1cfm, are these the ones you are using?

[Eduardo Amaro Valenzuela Cantauria Taller, Woodshop]

Hello Paul From Chile Eduardo

I use this vinyl Bag clamp called Vacupress. https://www.vacupress.com/product/20-30-vinyl-vacupress-bags/

I use for clamp Guitar Tops like a 3-5mm of thickness and 0.45mm also. I have a Old pump with clamping presure is 25 inhg ( 0,8KG x Cm2) or 0,8 Bar.

My experience was with

– Ash body and Flame Maple top

-Peruvian Mahogany Body with Flame maple top

-Okume With Lenga ( Chilean Cherry) ( be carefull with the open grain of okume, need extra load of Adhesive.

-Ash Body With Patagonian Rosewood.

-Ash Body With Poplar Burl 0.40 mm top

( is necessary use a vacuum meter for more pressure resolution and precision)

The adhesive is Titebond 2 or 3 and some times with Venners use Multibond 2015 ( from titebond Industrial) with 30min or 1 Hour of clamping time.

Yo can see more uses at my instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch8DlI6gw5t/

I hope this information is helpful
greetings

Eduardo

vacupress.com

20 & 30 Vinyl VacuPress® Bags | Vacuum Pressing Systems

20 & 30 Vinyl VacuPress® Bags for vacuum veneering and laminating all types of flat and curved woodwork. Air-tight seal, heat-welded seams.

[Massimiliano Monterosso Maxmonte Guitars]

one extra tip… stay away from AC-HVAC loading pumps… they are cheap and put out a very strong vacuum, but they spit out an obnoxious cloud of oil mist! Look for graphite vanes dry pumps or oil recirculating ones. The reservoir helps but is not necessary if you have a good duty cycle pump and don’t need to do 12hrs glueups.

As vacuum is widely used in manufacturing, be on the lookout for used ones, you can find pretty good deals, and there not much that can go wrong with a pump that cannot be fixed.

[Paul M]

Thanks for that and sorry for the delayed response!

What sort of pump would I be searching for for a used industrial pump? I see a lot of used medical ones but they are in the 1cfm range, I’d ideally like more than that.

[Massimiliano Monterosso Maxmonte Guitars]

For laminating the CFM doesn’t really matter, since when the bag is under vacuum there is almost no air to pull. It’s more important to look for a higher vacuum level. 1-2 CFM is plenty.

It’s different if you are doing workholding for cnc, especially on bigger parts, where you need the pump running in continuous.

I have used a 1.2 cfm pump for years with good results. Now I found a bigger one, and it definitely has more headroom, but not strictly necessary.

I hope this helps.