Cracked

[jd99]

I cracked my vacuum chamber on Wednesday, I tried to take a couple of pictures of it but the cracks won't show in the pics.

So if you going to make a vacuum chamber out of acrylic, make sure you go for the 1/2" thick instead of the 3/8" thick stuff DAMHIKT.

it's not leaking, and the pump will still hold it at 29" of vacuum but I don't trust it like it is, so i'm gonna cut two more peices of the 3/8" acrylic I have and glue them on the sides that cracked (it only cracked on the long side), that will make the two long sides 3/4" thick, then I think it will be ok until I can get some thicker acrylic, and make another one.

I think next time I'm going to make a little larger one so i can do more blanks.

 

[MesquiteMan]

I would not say that 3/8" acrylic will not work. I use it all the time on my smaller chambers and have not had one fail. I have actually testing the amount of deflection under deep vacuum and then conferred with the technical rep for the acrylic manufacturer that i use and they confirmed that I am well within the design tolerances. It all depends on how large and how you make it.