Pressure pot and Vacuum

[warthog]

I was thinking of buying that pressure pot that Binks has...I found a place locally that handles them...anyway...what I was wondering, do you use the pressure pot for a vacuum pot also. I am kind of new at all this and before I drop the money for this thing I need to know. Harbor frieght scares the *&*%# out of me. I have found that the only way to learn all of this...is just dive in and take the bull by the horns. That is how I learned meteorology and taxidermy...both of which are very complicated to say the least. I have several snake skins..of the pit viper variety...and several different bird skins to try and make into blanks. But I aint doing nothing without trial runs first. So what do you all say about this?

 

[ElMostro]

You can use the pot for both pressure and vac, its a matter of setting it up so that you isolate the gauges when you are doing one or the other. You do not want the pressure gauge to be open when you vacuum and viseversa. You can also install a dual purpose gauge that measures vac and pressure like this one:
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/Compound-Gauge-4FMH8
but I believe the PSI for these is not very high...only to about 30 PSI

 

[Padre]

Yes, you can use a pressure pot for both. The setup is not hard at all. An excellent tutorial, written by Steve Swiger, is here. Remember, pressure for casting, vacuum for stabilization.

I personally would agree with you about HF pots. Stay away.

Now, that being said: MesquiteMan, Curtis Seebeck, sells a fantastic stabilizing chamber, so you can have a one-dimensional pressure pot and then a separate stabilization chamber. Curtis also sells the resin for stabilization, and it works great. To see it go here.

There are a lot of great tutorials in the library about casting and stabilization. That's where I started, and it helps a lot. Good luck!

 

[BSea]

You can use the pot for both pressure and vac, its a matter of setting it up so that you isolate the gauges when you are doing one or the other. You do not want the pressure gauge to be open when you vacuum and viseversa. You can also install a dual purpose gauge that measures vac and pressure like this one:
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/Compound-Gauge-4FMH8
but I believe the PSI for these is not very high...only to about 30 PSI

This got me thinking. I have a pressure pot. It might be worth trying to make it dual purpose. I found this combination gauge that goes from vacuum to 75 psi, and the price is significantly less.

Note: when proofing this post, I notice that the link doesn't go all the way to the item I was looking at. The item number is 4004K43.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#compound-pressure-gauges/=e9e2hf

They also have other models.

EDIT: I also found this liquid filled gauge. item#38545K165

 

[warthog]

I looked under the McMaster.com web site at the pressure guagfes...I mean dang...175.00 for a stupid pressure guage...that also reads vacuum. I just think that is a bit much.

 

[BSea]

I looked under the McMaster.com web site at the pressure guagfes...I mean dang...175.00 for a stupid pressure guage...that also reads vacuum. I just think that is a bit much.

Navigating their site can be pretty frustrating. I think what you found was a certified gauge with very tight tolerances. But just key in the product codes in my above post into their search box, and you'll go to a much less expensive option.

The 1st one (4004K43) is air filled and sells for $10.10 and goes up to 75 psi with an error rate of +/- 2%.

The 2nd one (38545K165) is liquid filled (glycerin) and sells for $21.23 and goes up to 100 psi with an error rate of +/- 1%.

Hope that helps.