As someone who's spent years working with these kinds of vacuum systems, I'd like to make a few suggestions. 1. Of course, a vacuum system generally works best. However, there are other options. You can use your existing air compressor to get your vacuum by adding a venturi adapter to the line. This has worked well for me. You can use a shop vac but you may not get as high pressure as with the venturi. 2. Adding a vacuum guage will help you detect leaks. 3. Using mesh completely around the device ensures a more even vacuum pressure. I used girls knee high stockings for small items and womens stockings for larger. If they stretch out too far, it's a good idea to put two layers on. They will give even shape over the entire form and material. 4. There are a number of ways to make forms. Moulding plaster, bondo or similar which will hold up better and can be reused easier, and I'm sure there are other materials that will pour onto a mold. For your skate boards, encircle a skate board with a dam with the top of the board to the inside, Seal it and pour the material on top of the board. If using plaster, add metal stiffeners to help prevent the plaster from cracking.
Has someone tried out those vacuum bags sold on TV shopping shows usable for clothes, beds and such for clamping? We own four of them, three of them hold the vacuum for years now, stiff as a board. (My idea is the advantage of using a normal vacuum cleaner.)
@orazha thank you for the specific tips to improve this process. Do you have any RU-vid’s on the process? I would love to see the mold making process especially!
“Art makes the world a better place, let’s make more.” Love this! You always make creativity such a joy to watch and it inspires me to be better tomorrow than I am today. Thanks for sharing
Love how you mix the tutorial and an art project at different levels for this one. Perfect delivery. Very much enjoyed it. And I haven't even skateboarded in about 25 years
You forgot one pump that we mostly all have in a shop. The shopvac. I use it for removing air for clothing bags, vacuum molding before I had a 3d printer. And you can also use it to inflate things like party balloon or boat etc.
I will fear no art~!~ As a maker, an ex-skater(sk8brds)and now a onewheeler, so much goodness just happened for me in this video. I've been wanting to do vacuum bagging for awhile now. I already do a bunch of cold forming bent laminates for work, now I want to play with decks. Thank you~!~
I love how this idea evolved from a story about making skate decks to one about different ways to use a new tool. The deck turned out gorgeous, but I really learned a lot about using the vacuum press. I think I need a new tool now. Thanks for sharing!
This was awesome. Thank you doing this video. I’m in the process of setting up my hobby shop, and your videos are definitely an inspiration for my planning.
Dear Make, another great and informative video. I really enjoy the channel and am a new listener to the podcast. 👍 You've helped reinspire my maker mentality. 🙏
Good video Joewoodworker has a lot of info on vacuum pressing and pump setups. Bag tip - If you have a shop around that makes boat covers they use clear vinyl for the the windows, You can get cut offs cheap or free most of the time. I have bought sections from shops to make different sized bags for a fraction of the costs you could purchase the vinyl elsewhere. I use HH-66 vinyl cement to glue the edges it works great and makes a permanent air tight bond.
Absolutely amazing video as a new woodworker veneering scares me, but after watching your videos, it makes it seem like it’s something that’s very doable even for a beginner. Thanks for sharing and always giving us such great ideas.
Thank you for the 3 options on vacuum pumps and bags. Veneering scares the heck out of me, this was a great demonstration on starting in a reasonable fashion 😊
New tag line!?! Who's going to tell me to "...stay pationate and make something?" Seriously though, Keep evolving! We found you, Bob, Jimmy, and the others for a skill or technique and stay because of your personalities and creative sides.
Wow! I now need a vacuum bag system for my shop. Great video. Seeing such beautiful woodwork getting scratch up hurts. Have you thought of a epoxy finish for the bottom side of the skateboards? It's easy to repair. Thank for the fresh ideas.
I just changed out the plastic bag on my dust collector yesterday and watching this it just dawned on me, those plastic bags would probably work great for this DIY vacuum sealing. Wouldn’t have to mess with that sealing tape, and they’re fairly inexpensive
So glad you posted this. I share a workshop and someone left one of those style pumps for level 2. I’ve been wanting to do something but wasn’t 100% sure how to do it. Now I know! Freaking sweet!
Very interesting stuff! Thank you for including the low budget methods also! That definitely makes the video more worth watching for the nonprofit woodworkers who just want to enjoy the art of wood working without the second mortgage 💸. Hahaha! Well done in all honest though!.
I wonder if the big zip lock bags you suck down with a vacuum cleaner would work. They're super cheap and compress pillows and blankets a bunch. Great video as always!
I love Foam Factory. I’ve used them to get super high-quality foam for my cushions. They also have something called “pick and pull” foam, something like that, I used to organize my workbench drawers…not quite as nice as some of the other drawer organizing foam but the end result is similar and much cheaper.
TRUTH: Of all the woodworking RU-vid channels I follow, yours is defintiely in the top 5, partly due to your presentation style, partly due to your jokes (that are kinda my style too), and partly due to the types of project you do (some I do, some are just interesting and I'd like to do, but have no reason to do). Mind you, I'm primarily a woodturner so I have my top 5 woodturning channels that are separate from this list. BUT, you are top 5 (if not the top of the list) of the non-turning channels.
If you are just begining I'd recommend... 1) Go to your lcoal woodturning supply store and take one if not two classes. 2) Join your local woodturning club. The woodturning supply store will probably know and if they dont' the person teaching the class will. As for my 5 top wooturning RU-vid channels, please note that they all are VERY good at teaching (some just demonstrating great form): ThePapa1947, "Turn A Wood Bowl", "RDM Woodturning", and "Carl Jacobson".
Thank you for this video. Another maker I watch uses vacuum clamping and I've always just assumed it was a technique I would need to invest a bunch of money into, so I've just stayed away. Thanks for showing options with a cheaper threshold to entry.
I like the idea and will surely use it someday. Instead of going to Harbor Freight to spend 100 $ on a pump I would take an old fridge and take the compressor from it. One side gives off pressure alright, but the other side will suck. You'll be amazed at what it will do, and at 0 $ ... Secondly I would add a little ball valve to shut things off once you've reached sufficient vacuum.
Use some bowed braces across your pieces with your f-clamps and you'll get more reach and more evenly applied pressure. The braces don't have to be literally "bowed" either. You can put cut a curve on one side and then make strategic relief cuts on the straight side to dial in the amount and location of pressure as needed.
Awesome. I just made a piece and vacuum clamped using butyl tape, plastic sheet from home depot and a vacuum pump (I have a vacuum pump salvaged from a closed factory). I did it a little differently, by bagging to a table top and using pleats in the tape so the bag didn't bridge. The bags not reusable, but it's cheap as dirt so who cares. Wrapped a tube with butyl and ran it through the perimeter tape. I filmed the whole thing so I will probably post it somewhere soon.
I bought my vacuum pump from Amazon, last year. It's similar to your 2nd version, but I made sure to get the oilless version. The one you have will spit an oil mist into the air as it's running. The reason I bought a pump to begin with was to use as a small vacuum generator on my Axiom cnc. So far, I've made 2 small platens, just as proof of concepts, and they work great. They're about 8"×12" each. They hold a piece of melamine like a monkey holding a banana--not letting go! My next version will be like the Air Weights version, 24" square.
I have a kitchen appliance made for vacuum sealing bags. It includes a tube for use with bags that don't fit in the sealing iron, as well as reusable valve bags and jars. That should be intermediate in power between the hand pump and the Harbor Freight pump.
Clothingbags is imo the cheapest option. Buying a set usually comes with a handpump. I use the shopvac fir most of the air and then use the handpump. Those bags can be used multiple times and its not that messy. Great video!
When using vacuum bags it is a good idea to use or make a gap filling glue, as vacuum bags cant reach the same sort of pressures as a hydraulic press etc. This is especially so when using Veneers.
You can also get a vacuum regulator switch for $25 or so to controll your inexpensive vacuum pump, allowing for long term vacuum at a much lower price.
Sorry cuddles to burst your bubble (some-what). Try a vacuum storage bag (valve mainly) and a house/car vaccucm. Super glue / hot glue also works to seal plastic/vinyl.
have you ever heard of space bags? uses a shop vac. made for vacuum sealing clothing. but its a vacuum port one way valve. + a bag. if you need it bigger cut the ends and tape on more plastic.
My friend, you have no idea. Some years ago, I tried to find a cheap option for vacuum press veneering. It's not too common here in Brazil. I cant barely find a vacuum pump for a reasonable price. I've saw a similar option using this kind of pump, but I didnt have any idea how to find all parts, cause I'm not into wine. LOL. Thanks so much for sharing this. Sorry for my english.
One thing not mentioned, I believe: glue working time. The longer the better especially if you’re dealing with multiple layers or you have to fuss trying to seal a homemade bag. I prefer Titebond III over II for that reason.
How about the vacuum bags from the dollar store? The ones for clothes. Also how would a shop vac do in place of the wine saver? Not enough suction perhaps?
Nice video. Im interested in seeing how you cut and joined the veneer decorations on the bottom of the deck. When I tried to do that with a utility knife my veneer was splitting.
Instead of sealing tape, try the cheapest bathroom caulk you can find, works a treat! Will also work for your seals. Back in the day when I was doing a lot of this, I would just use 1/4" poly tubing stuck into the bag with a small piece of paper towel wrapped around it as a filter to keep from sucking resin, again, sealed with caulk going into the bag.
Thanks for the wine pump idea. I've been looking for a way to get into bent lamination art and this may be the way. Have you tried one of those air mattress pumps? You can reverse them to suckt he air out of the mattress.
FWIW, you also can go to an auto parts store like O'Reilly or Auto Zone and borrow a vacuum pump for free. In case you just need one sparingly and don't want to spend $100. Just have to return it within about 48 hours or so.
Another possibility, with a little modification, is a bicycle tire pump. It will get you a lot more pressure and volume (and therefore less work) than the wine pump.
Thank you very much! If one adds a valve, maybe it wouldn't require coming back every few minutes to pump it down? Just a thought, or a piece of flex tubing that could be bent over and clamped in lieu of a valve?
You know looking at the $100 pump, you in theory could put it on a digital timer that allows you to set it to run a half minute every 4 minutes, then you could walk away for 3 hours and have it run automatically constantly repressurizing the piece.
You can also scavenge a refrigerant compressor from an old water cooler or other appliance. These will pull a vacuum, and they are free if you go dumpster-diving or heavy-trash-pickup-surfing.
Ok, so...we have a FoodSaver machine with the hose attachment and the bags have one of those one way valves. They also have lids with the same one way valve that you can probably deconstruct as well. I'd be curious to see if that works with the same clear vinyl/sealing tape thing you did. We got our Deluxe model FoodSaver at Goodwill for like $20. It's great for saving our food, and probably this as well!
A lot of people don't realize that the pink foam board comes in a lot of different hardnesses as well. A local home center likely stocks at least the 15psi and 25psi flavors, 25psi being much harder to dent. But they come in ratings all the way up to 100psi!
