home made SIMPLE BUILD vacuum chamber - by VOGMAN 

Now you can check the gas level in your aluminium castings, just have a small (about 1/2 a cup) steel mould in the chamber fill the cup with molten aluminium immediately apply vacuum down to 0.1 atmosphere. Later slit the casting and clean up with abrasive paper to see how much gas you have - try different degassing methods and see what you get. Love the marshmallows are they nice and chewy afterwards?... Martin.

Sweet! Should also work quite nicely in model building setups to remove air from resin before it's poured into latex molds.

One belated alternative: while not perfect, a fast-and-dirty alternative to silicone rubber is foam mounting tape, sometimes sold as "camper mounting tape" or "foam rubber tape". It provides a surprisingly good vacuum seal for a low cost -- the biggest downside is that it only does so under compression. Not generally a problem for vacuum chambers, but can be tedious in other applications.

I’ve just started watching trough your vids and don’t know if it’s been mentioned yet but if you don’t want to risk heat damage to electric vac pump find a refrigerant pump from a used window AC unit or refrigerator. (Window unit is normally better style). With a little searching its not hard to find one someone is throwing out. I use one to degas silicone and resin before casting, these pumps will draw close to -30 in Hg (normally -25 to -27)

That’s a wireless pump, nice!

Absolutely superb. I will be building a chamber myself. The beauty of it is that the principle remains the same regardless of the size or shape of the box needed as long as structural integrity is maintained. Excellent video, well done. Best of luck.

You video was so descriptive that I literally had my phone in my pocket at work and was able to visualize everything!! Great content.

Thanks! This was well worth my time as I learned how to "tin" and a bunch of other things. Well done.

That’s a great tutorial that has answer many many questions I had about this topic. Thanks for putting it together.

Exactly what I need for an idea to make something really neat, more of an experiment.

Amazing skills and presentation! Thanks for the exquisite humour as well.

Fast, cheap, good. Pick 2. Great Vid! SHARPEN YOUR TOOLS ;)

Try - vacuum distillation. Boiling points of water and ethanol drop as pressure drops. Ethanol will always boil lower than water. If the pressure drops enough, you can distill ethanol at close to room temperature.

When you mention petroleum jelly and the next sentence is "back of the rim" creased me up. lol

As someone who's struggled with home plumbing fixes for years this video was worth it just for the tinning lesson!

I was looking at vacuum sealing jars of dried beans and this came up... quite like the tinning trick.

really awesome video, how long does the chamber hold the vacuum? how did you get the wood airthight enough

Amazing tinning tip! I may actually try it now.

Great stuff, my son and I were looking for just such a thing for a project we are working on.

"What the flux?" HAHAHA!!! That made me spit my coffee. Cheers!

Lovely video! Enjoyed all the puns thanks a lot!

Thank you for sharing, I need this

those r the yummiest looking marshmallows

Eloquent method, and excellent results! Your vids are very funny, and informative! Thanx again Geoff! :D

Nice job showing how simple it can be. Making a VC has been on my to-do list for too long and this gives me inspiration. Just a ? or 2 * why did you use a plank lined with foil to form the silicon seal instead of simply using the plexiglass top? * why did you put the vacuum gauge in the plexiglass lid rather than on a "T" just upstream of the close off valve? These ?? are not criticisms, just curious. And then a tip (which you probably know about but someone else might not. * Silicone tubes are notorious for hardening up once they have been used once. To stop it happening, take a small piece of aluminium foil and smooth it over the end of the opening before screwing the cap down over it. (You need to screw the foil well into the threads). Since I learned of this I have never had a tube dry up on me and I have some that I've been using in dribs and drabs for more than 5 years * when finished using it, leave the waste silicone in the screw on nozzle. Leave it to thoroughly set and pull it out with long nosed pliers. Trim off the small end. Makes a beaut ear plug. * keep the old nozzles and cut them off at different lengths so you have a set with different opening sizes.

Thank you! I ever wondered if I needed a professional (expensive) chamber for those works...

Thank you!

great project , plumbing was spot on I think we might have shared the same dad i often wish mine was still with us to see this sort of thing , mine was a plumber too . thanks a lot for every thing and keep involving your son , he will thank you . tony t .

Sweating solder is called brazing. Nice video.

"His wallet shriveled in the daylight", Brilliant! I laughed out loud at that. Nice one!

There is also a product known as tinning flux that has a bit of solder mixed in with the flux itself so that you simply have to heat the pipe and apply the flux and it tins the copper

Good vaccuum chamber. Here' another way, make your box a little bigger, place a car tyre pump at the bottom, drill a hole and put the inflation hose out through it, then seal the hole. Extend the on/off switch and the +/- wires of the pump to the outside of the case , again seal it now connect the other side of the switch to a small 12v battery ( or car battery). Switch on. the pump will evacuate the box through the hose... Ta, Dah!

Do you need the fancy vacuum pump? Is there no way around it, then? (Also, the tinning demo was super useful, thanks!)

Did he get his XBox back yet🤣😂. Damn that’s a good tutorial and design I recon even I could do that and I struggle with the simplist of things🤔. Great work Geoff have a great weekend mate👍🏻🍻, I had to edit this as my stupid phone changes all my A’s to bloody S’s 🙄

Headed ti the shop to make mine, thanks you make it simple.

I say 5 stars for using wood. That took some balls. This is the only one I have seen made of plywood. It makes sense to me. Use wood for the structure and a sheeting and silicone to hold the air.

I always wondered how to shrink heads.

09:27 Didn't see that statement coming.. ;)

Interesting. How do you calculate how thick plywood you need for each suare inch? I want to build a bigger chamber and need to know how to avoid an implosion.

4:00 the trick on the pipe dont surprise me since i do the same for electrical wiring xD but cool

Thanks for the video.

This video actually makes me go out and build one! Question: Does the vacuum gauge reach all the way through the arcylic? I'm assuming you also used a bunch of expanding glue.

Caution.... great mind at work.

Brilliant!

That is awesome! I try to build my own, but bit bigger.

How can we seal a vapor-impermeable bag/envelope around an object so that we can take the object out of the vacuum chamber and the vacuum seal remains? Ideally the bag would be transparent but aluminum foil could be okay.

Very nice build, welcome to the world of vacuum pressure. I hope in 2 years or so I'll be able to pick up and get stuff like this going again. until then I'm glad to have stuff like this to watch. I'll have to get a rebuild kit for my Welch Vacuum Pumps, I've got a DuoSeal pump to rebuild for a project that should be able to get below 0.001 Torr (that thing was quite the pocketbook breaker when I got it and it was discounted and in unknown shape... I don't have 220v in my garage so I don't know if it even works... maybe that was a bad buy, time will tell)

Started one copying yours. BUT my caulk is not curing (didn't know it had an expiration date! Dang.) While it wasn't curing, I thought of a possible improvement in your method. Why not put the four sides together, then put the foil-wrapped upside down and set the four sides on top of it. That way you can reach all the joints of the top (inside and outside) to make sure the caulk is perfect. (I couldn't see what was going on in with the top and bottom both on.) After the caulk is cured then put the bottom on and test it. Just a thought.

Great video. I have a vacuum pump but was wondering what else I could use for my dome cause my dome is too small. Was concerned that the pressure would break glass, but apparently that is not a problem Thank you.

Verry good thanks

what paint did you use ? being made of wood it would have to be sealed properly so as not to draw air and moisture out of the wood I want to make a very large chamber for freeze drying foods stainless is very expensive wood is cheap and easy to work with I was thinking of sealing with resin but not sure what that would be like under full vacuum

Ayup chap. Nice demo fella, very impressive. Keep it simple aye? Got a feeling I might be making one of these, albeit maybe slightly larger. Thanks mate.

Very nice great job!

I like the idea of using ply for the chamber, does it hold a constant vacuum over a few hours or over night? Putting the valve on the bottom could be a pump killer if you have a bubble over or your box gets bumped, I've seen people have a second smaller chamber between the pump and the pot for those kind of mishaps. Thanks for sharing

What would make this video even better is a parts list (with links) in the description.

You know that those copper fittings you are using are pre soldered? You can tell by that ring around them. Clean, flux, assemble and heat. You should still see the solder flow when it's hot enough.

How do i know if a pump will be strong enought to de-air resin/silicone for mold casting?

Buying all the necessary parts now! When you say expansion glue, what do you mean? Which glue did you use to make the seal between the pipe and wooden box? Also, did you use something other than typical indoor wall paint?

What degree vacuum can be achieved? How many millibars / torrs?

This is mighty interesting!

As far as cost goes, ask Alex Steel. He just RU-vidd making a steel vacuum chamber and welded it together. It was a very nice strong box too. Also expensive!

Excellent video, really amusing and a cracking product at the end of it

Ahahah funny pop up comments! I love your sense of humor.

I've been looking into vacuum chambers (and pressure chambers as well) for casting silicon. Do you think a similar build with a different lid and lid fastening method might be able to hold pressure as well? It'd be awesome to be able to have a single device to fill both needs.

what would be the best electric vacuum pump your recommend for casting Guru VOG?

It can be even more simple if you replace the whole wooden box with a large thick walled pot and have your evacuation point share the hole your gauge does. It literally is three things the pot acrylic and gauge valve assembly. with the most complicated thing being drilling and tapping the hole in the acrylic.

Great humor mate!! XD

What brass fittings did you use?

How strong of a vacuum pump do you need for good results?

Can you please mention the name of the vaccum pump used.

nice video thanks

So, how has this vacume chamber held up? Do you still use it...??

thanks for this video

How big can i go to make me a chamber using wood !

Im toying with the idea of making one using a pressure cooker, using suction from either a small bagless vacuum cleaner or mattress pump that sucks the air out as well,. Regards Alf

spray silicone with water next time, it'll speed up curing process

Nice job :) You mentioned having to repeat the silicone application - did you scrape the first layer totally or did you just apply some more silicone on top of that?

Question: Is a plaster mold & a box frame strong enugh to make a blow mold?

racking my brain to figure out how you're going to make your challenge coin using that ;-) #castingchallenge

Thanks.

Great

One of these days I'm going to try that with a plastic bucket

You seem to have missed out the ply thickness, but I love your video.

what is a vacuum chamber used for

Clever.

I get why you chose wood to build it from. It's cheap and easy to work with. But from a vacuum standpoint i couldn't find worse material for a vacuum chamber. But if it floats your boat, keep sailing. :)

Actually laughed out loud at the mother-in-law Christmas comment.

Any specific type of paint you used or will any white paint due

I think you could have 3d printed a tpu seal

3:31 How about toes? 😂😂😂

I have been doing some wet leather molding , I wonder if it work for that

Excellent work. What thickness ply did you use? 18mm?

Just one small comment - the reason you're not supposed to use your finger to flux is partially the oil from your skin, but that isn't much an issue with something this big, but also partially because it's really not good for you

hi where did you buy the vac pump i am in need of one can i have some tec info on it bob

How is the acrylic found cheaply?! Everywhere I look, the small cut stuff is brutal expensive!

Hi, Do you know the design calculations and consideration for vacuum chambers?? Response appreciated.

VegOilguy. Nice video. Question. I’m looking to buy a vacuum chamber for degassing resin. But now thinking of going the DIY route after watching this. Looking to making one the exact size. Wondering if it would suffice for degassing resin? Thanks

How much was the acrylic Square?

Great info!! How long does the vacuum hold?

A car air conditioning pump can be adapted to act as a vacuum pump.