New Problems....

[crabcreekind]

OK well i decided to stabilize again today. I tried cooking the blanks before putting them in the vacuum like Curtis suggested on a thread. After that i put them in my vacuum chamber and filled up the container and weighted them down. Then I turned on the pump. For whatever reason my pump mists oil. So i took it outside. I bled the vacuum at -15 in Hg for about 20 minutes, So the stuff wouldn't just bubble and not adsorb it. Then after that I put it on full vacuum for 2 hours. Then I came back and cooked the blanks. I got full penetration and i turned one to see how it is. But a problem came up. There is ZERO oil left in my pump, and all the oil is in the clear tubing. (Before you ask, no it is not cactus juice). Anyway how do i solve this problem. My vacuum pump is from harbor freight. I also attached a pic of the weights of the blanks before and after this process. the numbers on the blanks were gone after they got juiced, so i just wrote them down anyway.

 

[log2lumber]

vacuum pump

Ditch the HF vacuum pump. Probably not worth fixing.

Buy a Gast or another quality pump.

 

[Jim Burr]

Or a refrige compressor for $20-40. Mine works just fine without all the drama and whoopla.

 

[alamocdc]

I visited with Curtis for a while last Monday and we talked about vacuum pumps. While I still want to try at least one batch with my Gast, he may have convinced me to go the fridge compressor route when I get serious. That, or spend serious bucks on a good HVAC pump. So I'm leaning the ridge compressor direction.

 

[JD Combs Sr]

If you continue to use your current pump after re-filling it with oil(I doubt that is damaged so quickly) there are two things you should consider.

1. It appears that you only have a bleed valve in you suction line. You should also have another valve in the intake line between the pump and the tee assembly shown in your pics. Once installed always shut it off first before turning the vacuum pump off. If you don't some pumps, if you don't isolate them with the second valve will allow the vacuum left in the chamber to pull the oil out of the pump into the suction line as it appears to have done in your case.

2. If you are also loosing a lot of your oil out the exhaust side of the pump you can buy coalescing filters that extract the oil from the exhaust and automatically dump it back into the pump. A little on the expensive side but may be worth it if you are loosing a lot of oil on the exhaust side.

For additional info see this in the IAP Library.

 

[MesquiteMan]

Your problems sounds to me like you turned off the pump while it was still under vacuum. If so, this allowed the vac chamber to "suck" the oil out of the pump and into the lines. ALWAYS release the vacuum from the system and allow the pump to get back to atmospheric pressure before turning it off. Not only will it prevent this from happening again but it will also prolong the life of your pump.

As for the oil mist while running...Harbor Freight (and other Asian imports) are bad about this. Just part of going inexpensive. There are oil mist filters for vacuum pumps available but they are not cheap. Another option is to hook up a hose to the exhaust and run it outside.