# Vacuum pots?



## jaustin

I used to have a cactus juice pressure chamber but ended up selling it.

What are the got to chambers now or is there and home built ones that are safe to use?
What are you using for stabilizing ?


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## Sprung

For a pre-made vacuum chamber for stabilizing, you can't beat one of Curtis' chambers. (Turntex.com - who sells the Cactus Juice.)

However, if you're interested in building your own or having one built for you, I'm currently looking at buying a 5' piece of 6" Schedule 40 Clear PVC soonish (maybe in a couple/few weeks) to build a couple/few more chambers for myself. I'm not 100% certain yet as to how much or if I'll have any leftover after making 2 or 3 chambers for myself, but I'm thinking I may end up having somewhere between 12" and 18" leftover and looking for a home.


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## rocky1

E-Bay Best Value Vac vacuum pots, go as big as you can afford. Love the 10 gallon pot, have a 2 gallon bucket I stack full of blanks fill with cactus juice and set in it. Stack 2 to 4 quart containers of dyed blanks on top of it, pull vacuum on the whole works at one time. No worries about resin bubbling up and getting sucked into the pump, at all. Much easier in the long run.

Reactions: Agree 2 | Informative 1


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## kweinert

rocky1 said:


> E-Bay Best Value Vac vacuum pots.



I was curious and looked. I'll just note that this company says you should only use their GlassVac chambers for wood stabilization, not the BestValueVac or the ShatterVac.

I have no direct experience with them as Rocky appears to, just wanted to be sure that if you're looking you don't confuse the 'go as big as you can afford' with something that may not be suitable. I'll be glad to be corrected by Rocky as appropriate.

I have one of TurnTex's clear PVC ones. I know that an earlier model that I owned had issues with leaving cactus juice in it but I've had no issues at all with the PVC tube one. 

Let us know what you decide.


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## gman2431

They say that at best value about all their stuff used for stabilization so theres no warranty. They specialize in reefer processing devices and don't know squat about wood when I talked to whomever on the phone there that was one toke over the line.

Reactions: Like 1


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## jaustin

Thanks for the information. 
Ill check out ebay. 
@Sprung let me know if you have any left over. 
Im not in a big hurry, just kicking some ideas around.


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## Sprung

jaustin said:


> Thanks for the information.
> Ill check out ebay.
> @Sprung let me know if you have any left over.
> Im not in a big hurry, just kicking some ideas around.



John, will let you know if I do.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## rocky1

Ken is very much correct...

The problem with the poly lid chamber is, the poly will craze. The resin causes lots of little fractures in the poly, which grow over time, and it will eventually implode. How long it takes it to implode is beyond me, I've been using my big pot for 2 years now, and it started crazing with the first batch I cooked; it's still running flawlessly however. Having touched on the subject with a lot of different guys that are stabilizing, I have found one that said his finally gave up and caved in. He however is mass producing game calls on a small scale, has a duplicator on his lathe, pictures of his shop, he usually has several hundred on the shelf at any given time, so... 1.) I'm guessing he does a LOT of stabilizing. And, 2.) I honestly don't know how long that took, what size chamber he's running, how thick his lid was, how often he's had resin boil up/splatter up on the lid, or anything else about his operation. 

When the poly lid goes, I'm going to drill a hole in the side of the pot, remount my fittings, and have a piece of glass cut to fit it, as that is the only difference in the Glass-Vac chamber. And, I'd still go as big as you can afford. Running the smaller pots, you do have to be careful not to suck resin up in the vacuum line any time you use it; when I was running my gallon pot, it was constantly a battle; I was severely limited in what I could run at one time. With the 10 gallon pot, I can stabilize a 10" bowl blank if I want, up to about 10 inches deep, without any problem. On the other hand, I can toss 20 - 25 blanks, 7/8" - 1" pen/call blanks, in my bucket at a time, and stabilize them all at once, or if I just have one blank I want to stabilize or dye, I can set it in small plastic dish and do 1 blank, without a problem.

While 10 gallon pots are not cheap... about $250 for the one with the poly lid, I have... the versatility it affords you is worth every penny spent. When I bought, I bought the 10 gallon, a 1 gallon, and my pump separately, and saved enough on the pump and 10 gallon pot vs. package prices, to pay for the 1 gallon pot. I used the 1 gallon pot for a year or so, and found it to be a first class Pain In The A.... Constantly had problems sucking up resin when it boiled up, couldn't ever get enough blanks in it to suit me. Anything over 5" blanks, pushes your resin level closer to your lid, causing more problems yet with sucking up resin, when you release vacuum it blows resin all up on your lid. With the 10 gallon pot you drop your bucket in, turn the pot on, and the only thing you have to worry about is not sitting your bucket under the pipe through the lid, because when you release vacuum it blows resin everywhere and makes a mess inside the chamber. Found a piece of curled vacuum hose, about 3 inches long, (_came off the bottom end of the roll)_, and slipped it over the fitting so it directs air to the wall when releasing vacuum, and alleviated that problem. Unless I have my bucket full of blanks, or have my small batches of blanks dying in smaller dishes too full, I don't have to worry about boiling things over. And, if it does, you simply pour it back in your bucket/dish, wipe the pot out, and go on. 



Best Value Vac will also tell you their pump isn't designed to use with wood stabilization resins, if you dig deep enough. Mine's been used for nothing but, for 4 years now, still works fine, can't see any damage. I've had it apart and cleaned it, I honestly can't see anything in there the resin could affect with exception to the impeller itself, which would also appear a high density plastic that would be adversely affected by high temperatures as well, so sustained run times vacuuming wood could also be impacting that. I suspect that they've had issues with improperly maintained pumps locking up, and that's their excuse for the problem. Initially they suggested a filter system for wood resins, that they wanted $400 for, to save an $80 pump. HELLO!! 

I use it, abuse it, do all the things everyone says you shouldn't do, and it still works fine.

Reactions: Like 1 | Informative 3


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## Schroedc

I'm a fan of the clear PVC pipe chambers. Have three of them. Two I built myself. If you get pipe, I recommend 12-18 inches over there lengths you'll usually do so you can run longer stuff if you need to.

Reactions: Like 2


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## rhossack

If you go commercial you might as well support the man who started this craze at Turntex.com 

I have been using various "Glass" chambers from large pickle jars to vases from Hobby Lobby since sometime around 2005. I've never had
a failure. I do make my lids out of scrap MDF that I use a rubberized gasket material (ie valve cover) to seal the lids to the vases.


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## CWS

I have a Best Value aluminum pot with a tempered glass pot. It works very well for the stabilizing I do. Just my two cents.


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## jaustin

I ended up finding a setup on ebay, Best Value Vacs NSF Certified 5 Gallon Vacuum Chamber with Model RS-1 3 CFM Pump
It was a used chamber and pump ended up costing $125 shipped.

I did have a turntex setup a few years ago, the square Plexiglas setup. 

Now I need to order some cactus juice.

Reactions: Like 2


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## rocky1

Keep an eye out for square buckets/containers that'll fit your pot John. They're not as common as round buckets, but they're out there. I'm using a rectangular bucket that chlorine tablets for swimming pools come in. Fits my down in my pot nicely, pen blanks stack in it much nicer than in round containers of any nature, not a lot of wasted space to fill with juice.

The Glad containers that lunch meats come packed in work well for smaller items/batches of items.

Personally, I use pieces of a metal Queen Bee Excluder to hold everything down, and sit a piece of scrap iron on top. Beauty with that set up is, I can turn those across my dishes to drain my blanks, or use them to stack my dishes in the pot. Unfortunately, I don't have any plastic excluders to experiment with. Cost was irrelevant on my end, I found an old metal excluder that was bent and brought it home to cut up. The plastic excluder would be rigid enough to do most of that, (_with possible exception of maybe stacking lunch meat containers filled with resin and blanks over my chlorine bucket _); plastic would be much easier to cut however, and is about half the cost. 

https://www.dadant.com/catalog/m00865-plastic-queen-excluder-each-10-frame
https://www.dadant.com/catalog/m00823-metal-bound-queen-excluder-10-fr

Reactions: Like 1


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## jaustin

Pot and vacuum came today. Looks pretty good.
I did put it under vacuum and disconnected pump to see how long it will hold.
But when running I do get a very light mist coming out of the orange thing on top of pump. any suggestions how to contain it where it doesn't fill my shop.


http://i94.Rule #2/albums/l89/gunracksonline/20170624_204534_zpstbnhbj7x.jpg

http://i94.Rule #2/albums/l89/gunracksonline/20170624_163034_zpsyjoh0t3x.jpg


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## rocky1

Mist is nothing more than water vapor, although it does smell a lot like hot oil and resin most times. It may go away, depends upon how dry your shop is, and how dry the wood you're stabilizing is. Some guys say they see a lot of smoke out of them, mine seldom does with clean oil. When the oil gets a little moisture in it, gets milky looking, then I'll see a little vapor coming out of it, long as the oil is clean and clear it's not an issue.

If that pot is anything like my 10 gallon, it'll hold vacuum 3+ weeks. I tossed some blanks in mine one time, got busy with other things, spaced them out and didn't get back to them, it was literally 3 weeks later when I got around to pulling them out, and it hadn't lost an inch of vacuum. My 1 gallon pot would lose 10 - 15 inches overnight.

Thought it was giving up on me one time, lost 3 - 4 inches over night, next day it had gained it back all by itself!! Don't be surprised to see slight fluctuations in Vacuum Pressure as a result of passing fronts. Your gauge will do weird things when the barometer rises and falls.


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## rocky1

Replacement Exhaust Port Filter for it...

Looking at your pictures, is that all the further it will pull vacuum? Unless you're on top of a BIG mountain up there in Thomasville, or your gauge is off, it should do better than that. Mine will run right at 30 inches without a hiccup.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## jaustin

Its a empty pot, I just ran it for a few minutes to check the pump and see if it seals. Bought it off ebay used.
Won't have any juice to try it till next week.

Thanks for the link to te filter

Reactions: Like 1


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## jaustin

what reading should I be getting in m area?


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## rocky1

Depends on your elevation John... You should do 29+ inches up there I would think. 

Effects of Elevation on Vacuum Pressure Chart

This one is an interesting chart if you're an astronaut


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## rocky1

Google puts you at 800 to 1000 ft elevation in the Thomasville area, so right at 29 inches hg Vacuum would be ultimate. As pointed out above that may fluctuate a little with passing fronts as well. When the barometer is high, mine will run an extra inch or so of vacuum, when it's falling or low, my readings may drop up to 2 inches.


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## Jimmy Norris

Sprung said:


> For a pre-made vacuum chamber for stabilizing, you can't beat one of Curtis' chambers. (Turntex.com - who sells the Cactus Juice.)
> 
> However, if you're interested in building your own or having one built for you, I'm currently looking at buying a 5' piece of 6" Schedule 40 Clear PVC soonish (maybe in a couple/few weeks) to build a couple/few more chambers for myself. I'm not 100% certain yet as to how much or if I'll have any leftover after making 2 or 3 chambers for myself, but I'm thinking I may end up having somewhere between 12" and 18" leftover and looking for a home.


Matt. If you don't mind me asking. Where did you end up purchasing the clear pvc?


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## rhossack

Don't know where Matt got his but I have this in my cart https://www.amazon.com/FORMUFIT-P03...2982672&sr=8-2&keywords=Schedule+40+Clear+PVC


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## Jimmy Norris

rhossack said:


> Don't know where Matt got his but I have this in my cart https://www.amazon.com/FORMUFIT-P03...2982672&sr=8-2&keywords=Schedule+40+Clear+PVC


Thanks man. But im looking for 6" or bigger.


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## rhossack

Don't know anything about them but in the middle of the page is 6" to 12" listed http://atlanticscreen.thomasnet.com...ings-and-visually-clear-flush-threaded-casing
http://atlanticscreen.thomasnet.com...ings-and-visually-clear-flush-threaded-casing


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## Sprung

Jimmy Norris said:


> Matt. If you don't mind me asking. Where did you end up purchasing the clear pvc?



I ended up purchasing it from here in a 5' length. If you don't want or need a 5' long piece, you can buy shorter pieces here or here for more money per foot, but you're getting only what you need. (Can't personally vouch for the 2nd and 3rd links - I've never ordered from either.)

Wherever you end up purchasing it, you're looking for Schedule 40 Clear PVC. I used Schedule 40 caps (domed, white in color) for the bottoms and bought a 1" sheet of PVC from Amazon to make lids. The sheet of PVC was a pain to work with on the lathe to make the lids round (not unexpected since it's a thermoformed plastic, but I wanted to make them look nice), but it drilled and tapped extremely well to install fittings.


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## Lou Currier

rhossack said:


> If you go commercial you might as well support the man who started this craze at Turntex.com
> 
> I have been using various "Glass" chambers from large pickle jars to vases from Hobby Lobby since sometime around 2005. I've never had
> a failure. I do make my lids out of scrap MDF that I use a rubberized gasket material (ie valve cover) to seal the lids to the vases.



 Please


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## Tony

Lou Currier said:


> Please



Here you go Lou 

https://woodbarter.com/threads/two-stabilizing-chambers-6-x-12.32470/


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## kweinert

Sprung said:


> I ended up purchasing it from here in a 5' length.



They sure are proud of that clear stuff aren't they! 

I'm not saying that their price is out of line, just that it was a lot more than I was expecting to see given the cost of normal Schedule 40 pipe. $40/10 ft compared to $200/5 ft was just a much bigger jump than I expected.


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## Sprung

kweinert said:


> They sure are proud of that clear stuff aren't they!
> 
> I'm not saying that their price is out of line, just that it was a lot more than I was expecting to see given the cost of normal Schedule 40 pipe. $40/10 ft compared to $200/5 ft was just a much bigger jump than I expected.



And that $200/5 foot is about the cheapest I found clear 6" schedule 40 pvc, unless I was willing to buy 10'+ of it - the clear stuff is certainly a huge price premium over the standard white stuff.


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## rocky1

I was going to suggest US Plastics, but they're $46/ft on it as well.


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## Jimmy Norris

Sprung said:


> And that $200/5 foot is about the cheapest I found clear 6" schedule 40 pvc, unless I was willing to buy 10'+ of it - the clear stuff is certainly a huge price premium over the standard white stuff.


Was it cost effective to make your own?


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## Sprung

Jimmy Norris said:


> Was it cost effective to make your own?



It definitely was. I put together 4 chambers from the 5' section I purchased - 3 @ 1' and 1 @ 2'. Two of them I've sold to other members here, the other two I ran through their first cycle last week and have been curing the blanks in the oven today.

The one thing that couldn't necessarily be purchased in quantity small enough for one or two chambers was the 1" PVC I used for the lids. I bought a 24" x 24" sheet and have so far used a little over half of it. (Will be using some more of it as I am also planning on building some 4" chambers as well.) The Buna-N gasket material I bought a 24" x 24" sheet and have extra of that as well, but know it's something I'll make use of over time. The domed schedule 40 caps, up to 6", you might be able to source from a local big box store - I bought one at Menards since I accidentally ordered one less than what I needed when I bought some through PVC Fittings Online, where I bought the pipe from.


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## Lou Currier

@Sprung if you make another you will have to do an instructable with pictures (you know how we love pictures).

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Sprung

Lou Currier said:


> @Sprung if you make another you will have to do an instructable with pictures (you know how we love pictures).



Sometime in September I'll be buying the material to make myself some 4" chambers - I'll try to remember to do a thread in the classroom section of the forum when I do.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Jimmy Norris

Sprung said:


> It definitely was. I put together 4 chambers from the 5' section I purchased - 3 @ 1' and 1 @ 2'. Two of them I've sold to other members here, the other two I ran through their first cycle last week and have been curing the blanks in the oven today.
> 
> The one thing that couldn't necessarily be purchased in quantity small enough for one or two chambers was the 1" PVC I used for the lids. I bought a 24" x 24" sheet and have so far used a little over half of it. (Will be using some more of it as I am also planning on building some 4" chambers as well.) The Buna-N gasket material I bought a 24" x 24" sheet and have extra of that as well, but know it's something I'll make use of over time. The domed schedule 40 caps, up to 6", you might be able to source from a local big box store - I bought one at Menards since I accidentally ordered one less than what I needed when I bought some through PVC Fittings Online, where I bought the pipe from.


I was curious because I have access to 8" white pvc and a whole selection of carbon steel pipe up to 20". if I were to use Plexiglas for the lid to see the foam I should be alright?


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## Sprung

Jimmy Norris said:


> I was curious because I have access to 8" white pvc and a whole selection of carbon steel pipe up to 20". if I were to use Plexiglas for the lid to see the foam I should be alright?



Plexiglass and other similar acrylics won't hold up to the stabilizing resin. I have seen many posts in various places about people who have either made or purchased a chamber and used acyrlic or plexiglass for the lid and have then been disappointed in it - sometimes getting only one or two vacuum cycles out of it before it's trashed.


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## Jimmy Norris

Sprung said:


> Plexiglass and other similar acrylics won't hold up to the stabilizing resin. I have seen many posts in various places about people who have either made or purchased a chamber and used acyrlic or plexiglass for the lid and have then been disappointed in it - sometimes getting only one or two vacuum cycles out of it before it's trashed.


dang it.


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## rocky1

Plexiglass will crack all over, spider web like cracks everywhere, typically referred to as crazing. Condition occurs without contact, the vapors within the pot will cause it, and it can occur on first use. How long the lid will stand up in that condition I don't know, the lid on my 10 gallon pot has been that way for well over a year and hasn't failed yet, but it continues to get worse with every use.


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## Jimmy Norris

rocky1 said:


> Plexiglass will crack all over, spider web like cracks everywhere, typically referred to as crazing. Condition occurs without contact, the vapors within the pot will cause it, and it can occur on first use. How long the lid will stand up in that condition I don't know, the lid on my 10 gallon pot has been that way for well over a year and hasn't failed yet, but it continues to get worse with every use.


if you were to us it as a site glass would you be able to see the foam? and how thick is the plexi?


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## rocky1

Plexiglass on mine is 1" thick Jimmy, but the pot is over a foot in diameter. I can still see through some portions of it so it's still working for me, but Best Vacs advises against using those lids for wood resins now. At the time I bought mine, there were no warnings, there was no Glass Vac line available. I think they hadn't hit the problems encountered by woodworkers when I purchased, or hadn't figured out what it was at the time. Were I going to use a PVC 8" in diameter, I'd find a glass cover for it. Fittings can be run through the PVC near the top.


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## andy close

Is there really a big advantage to using the "clear" schedule 40 PVC over the white schedule 40 PVC? From what I've seen in pictures of the stuff you can kinda see through it, but it's not really "clear". Wouldn't just having a clear lid be good enough?


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## rocky1

Just makes it easier to monitor your blanks to see if they're still bubbling.


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