# Jumbo Chamber



## justallan

Here's my little project.
It's 13 1/2" deep with 10" ID.
Everything on it was free except the acrylic top and about 50 cents worth of caulking.
The top and bottom are stepped to fit inside the pipe to give extra support. The bottom is just glued in with caulking. In the stepped out area of the lid I took one of my newly acquired dremel bits and milled an O-ring groove which I filled plenty full with non-hardening caulking. I covered that with plastic food wrap and set the lid into the pipe and pushed it down to about 1/8" of the top, pushing the caulking out to the edge of the lid. This SHOULD give me a nice seal. We'll see.

Reactions: Like 3 | Way Cool 2


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## Kevin




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## justallan

Argh! Just went to pull the food wrap off and check it out and the darned silicone isn't near set up. Update tomorrow.

Reactions: Useful 1


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## barry richardson

That's a neat project Allan, I will be interested to see how it turns out, I assume you had some of that Plexiglas laying around, cause that thick stuff aint cheap...

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## eaglea1

Cool project. I did one last year using a large stainless steel stock pot. I need to get a new rubber seal for it already.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Mike1950

Cool project- Are you going to stabelize that roll of TP??

Reactions: Funny 4


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## justallan

@Mike1950, that's a roll of paper towels. This thing is big enough to cure a small pet of any gas issues.
I messed up on my seal and forgot to bridge it up to the thickness that I wanted to make my seal. The lid settled and squished out the caulking enough to leave the seal a bit thin. It may still work, but I'm not holding my breath on it.

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## justallan

Well, it's working. Although I'm not thrilled with my mistake on the seal and will redo it, it's holding at 28 with the pump turned off.

Reactions: Way Cool 8


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## SENC

justallan said:


> Well, it's working. Although I'm not thrilled with my mistake on the seal and will redo it, it's holding at 28 with the pump turned off.
> 
> View attachment 67669


I don't know how you read that gauge, as blurry as it is.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## dycmark

SENC said:


> I don't know how you read that gauge, as blurry as it is.



Henry, you just need to adjust the focus on your monitor .

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## justallan

I'm sure that's just my fine photography skills, but am going to get my other manifold, it has liquid filled gauges and is more reliable.


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## justallan

Well, it was both a success and a bit of learning too. I let it sit from about noon until 8 PM tonight with the pump off and it went from 28 down to about 23-24, so that tells me that all of my seals are pretty good in my pump and gauges. I made the mistake of jumping the gun with trying it out before the caulking was fully set up, but with nothing but the suction from the pump I now know that the non hardening caulking will be pliable enough to form a seal just fine.
I'm going to need to put handles on the lid and fasten the acrylic onto the green ring with screws. They separated pretty darn easy when I picked up the lid by the hose nipple, OOPS!
BUT, it's progressing.

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## justallan

Well isn't this the pits! I've got the vacuum chamber to seal good, consistently, and now my pump is acting funny. I've isolated the chamber and shut off the pump and am steady right at 27-28. DRATS, for lack of a more colorful word.
Question, is it going to be alright on box elder at 28 or should I figure out something better, like fix or replace my pump?


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## JR Custom Calls

I believe Curtis has a chart on his website that shows max vacuum by elevation. 28 may be all you can really pull. Then again, I don't know all that much about it. Mine goes to 29 and change, but no higher... and I've had great results.


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## justallan

Okay, what I've done is throw some scraps into a disposable Tupperware dish and covered them with about 1/2" of water and weighted them down, set the dish in the chamber and ran the pump until I had no bubbles plus about 15 minutes. I then released the vacuum and let it sit for a bit. I took the scraps out and started slicing them on the bandsaw and they were wet through and through. There were a couple tiny spots right in some of the real harder spots that didn't look as soaked, but were wet. I compared them to the piece that I cut them from to fit in the bowl.
The way I see things it should work the same with the resin. Can you see anything that I might be missing?


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## SENC

justallan said:


> Okay, what I've done is throw some scraps into a disposable Tupperware dish and covered them with about 1/2" of water and weighted them down, set the dish in the chamber and ran the pump until I had no bubbles plus about 15 minutes. I then released the vacuum and let it sit for a bit. I took the scraps out and started slicing them on the bandsaw and they were wet through and through. There were a couple tiny spots right in some of the real harder spots that didn't look as soaked, but were wet. I compared them to the piece that I cut them from to fit in the bowl.
> The way I see things it should work the same with the resin. Can you see anything that I might be missing?


Just that the resin is more viscous (bonus vocabulary word for Tony) than water, so you may not get the same results.

I agree with JR about checking Curtis' table to see what you might expect at your altitude. If you decide your pump is toast and want to replace it, let me know. I have a good one just sitting. I'm not really looking to get rid of it, but might be willing to trade it for some FBE burl futures.


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## justallan

Thanks guys. I think I'm going to roll the dice and give it a whirl. I figure that if it's wet through and through it should do the trick, plus it might be the gauge that I didn't change. We shall see.
Thanks for the offer Henry. I owe one person right now, but for the call of science and adventure I may talk with you on that.


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## Schroedc

Where I'm at I'll pull anywhere between 28.5 and 29.4 depending on the pressure outside that day. I'd think you could go for it, Even if the very center doesn't get resin in it you'll be drilling that out anyways right? Another thing you can do if you are doing the blanks is to drill a 6.5 or 7mm hole the length of the blank so the resin works in from both the inside and the outside.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## justallan

Good idea. I am doing 3 pen blanks and a 4"x1" pot call blank. I did think to make the pot call octogon.


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## Schroedc

justallan said:


> Good idea. I am doing 3 pen blanks and a 4"x1" pot call blank. I did think to make the pot call octogon.



Unless I'm doing something for other people or to keep on hand for inventory I tend to remove as much material as possible so I'm not wasting the resin and dye on stuff that's going to end up on the floor anyways. You don't want to get too caried away (I've had a few blanks warp a little during baking) but it's another way to stretch your resin dollar.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Informative 1


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## TurnTex

Drilling and pre-turning makes sense for saving resin for sure. However, if the grain of your blanks run in spindle orientation, drilling the center will not help with resin uptake. The overwhelming majority of resin uptake occurs through the end grain. Drilling a hole parallel to the grain does not open up a significant amount of end grain, if any. For larger items such as calls, predrilling can save enough resin to be worth it but on smaller stuff, the $.05 you save on something like a pen blank is not worth the extra effort it will take to drill it again to clean up inside the hole, IMO!


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## TurnTex

Oh yeah, if you are showing 28" Hg, you have a problem..*.a problem with your gauge!!!*  According to wikipedia, your city (took that from your order) is 2,523' ASL. According to my Maximum Theoretic Vacuum Calculator, your max vacuum for your elevation is 27.29" Hg on a standard atmospheric day of 29.92" barometric pressure. So, either your gauge is wrong or there was a really high pressure system over you the day you got 28" since in order to get 28" at your elevation, your barometric pressure would have to be around 30.65" Hg. It is possible to have pressure that high but is uncommon. I have a person weather station and the highest pressure I have recorded here in 3 years is 30.67" Hg. Then again, you probably do not have a $150 gauge so I would blame it on the gauge!

So, all joking aside, you are doing about as good as you possibly can for your elevation!

Here is the link to my calculator for anyone who is interested. http://www.turntex.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77:maximum-theoretical-vacuum-calculator&catid=36:main-data&Itemid=61


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## justallan

Thanks guys. I got these pieces done last night and will go down and see what they look like chopped up after I feed this morning. I think the middle pen blank looks like it didn't take or hold the resin for whatever reason. It's noticeably lighter than the other two. After soaking them do you want to let them drain off a minute or so before wrapping them in foil? The bigger piece looks like it bled out quite a bit.

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## justallan

@TurnTex, thanks for the help. I was trying to figure out how you were so far off on the elevation then realized my mailing address is for the next town over. Where I live, if you live in town you have a Colstrip address, but anything out of town gets delivered through the Forsyth carriers. I live right next to the airport and their elevation is 3422 so my maximum pull should be about 26.6 Hg. I'd have to guess my guage is indeed messed up. I have another set of gauges that I have out in the 5th wheel.


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## justallan

Another question, is it advisable to stack the wood blanks while in the chamber. I had used a small square generic Tupperware bowl and stacked the pieces to be stabilized and throughout the entire process I would see large bubbles escaping, like they were building up under the flat part of the wood on the top layer. Periodically I would gently tap the chamber with the side of my boot to dislodge them and did this until the very end. I just feel that if they were left there it would be the first thing drawn back into the wood when you released the vacuum.


A HUGE CAUTION!!!!
It says on the resin jug not to get this stuff on your hands, WELL DON'T! For a weight I grabbed the first thing handy, which happened to be an old door hinge, and stood it up like a teepee on top of the wood. When I was cleaning things up after I was done I realized that the part of the hinge that was in the resin was stripped of any paint right down to bare metal, and I mean good and proper like. I'm thinking of sacrificing a little for an old 1916 Waterloo engine I have with a stuck piston. LOL

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## JR Custom Calls

He recommends tilting the chamber a little to release bubbles on his site somewhere. I remember seeing it, did it, and realized why.

I am using cole jaw plates as weights on top of a basket I cut up out of a deep freeze. I'm the person who breaks out just thinking about certain things, and so far, it hasn't caused me any issues. I haven't rushed to rinse my hands either, except when I got yellow dye on them and didn't want that to be permanent.


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## justallan

Thanks Jonathan.


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## TimR

Allan, your build looks good. The only thing you may want to consider, since you can see down in the chamber, is to add a small valve and attach a nipple on the inside with some 1/4" hose to allow you to add more resin while under vacuum, or perhaps even pull vacuum dry then add the resin to avoid the foaming if that helps you. I was kinda surprised the first time I did it that it didn't cause a big drop in vacuum as long as you're just drawing in resin, and not air.


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## justallan

Thanks Tim.
I was wondering about doing that and thinking on making an adjustable tube to be placed right above the pieces getting stabilized so the only thing hitting the wood is resin.


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## TurnTex

The blanks all look good from the pictures as far as I can tell. Excess bleed out is caused by one of 3 things...cure temperature being too high (want to be right at 200° F verified with a thermometer), moisture in the wood, and not allowing the blanks to soak long enough at atmospheric pressure after vacuum. Remember to pull vacuum with the pump running the entire time you are under vacuum. Pulling vacuum and holding it by closing a valve will NOT do a sufficient job and does not provide any benefit at all. Then, after the bubbles have stopped, tilt the chamber to dislodge any air trapped under the blanks and release the vacuum. Allow the blanks to soak at least twice as long as you pulled vac. So, if you had your pump running for 2 hours, you would want to soak at least 4. Longer will not hurt anything since the Juice will not evaporate. Make sure you wood is completely dry by oven drying at 217° F for 24 hours prior to stabilizing for best results.

As for a couple of your other questions...no, you do not need to let them drain prior to wrapping. You can if you want but not necessary and does not change the amount of bleed out. I recommend that if you are stacking your blanks in the chamber, do not dead stack them. I use bamboo skewers as stickers between each layer. The air is still going to get out of the wood regardless but having the stickers allows it to more easily flow to the surface rather than get trapped between the layers. Any air that is trapped when you release vacuum is going to be sucked right back into the wood.

As for the dry vac...you can certainly do that but it does not improve the final product. To me, it is just another place to potentially have a vacuum leak

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## justallan

@TurnTex, thanks Curt. You've been a great help.


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## justallan

Thanks to a bunch of help from you guys, WE GOTTER DONE!
I made a pen with the FBEB that I stabilized and it turned out great.
Thanks guys.

Reactions: Like 3 | EyeCandy! 2


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## SENC

Beautiful work, Allan!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## justallan

Thanks Henry.
As soon as I started drilling it I knew it was stabilized some anyway, just by my cuttings. It turned simply awesome and now I better understand how folks can turn bunches of pens in a short amount of time. Both of the pens I turned tonight took less than a quarter of the time I've spent on just one pen of this wood I have. Absolutely no tear out and probably 1/20 of the sanding involved. The rings you can see in the pic are of my not so fine finish. lol


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## SENC

Stabilizing definitely makes a difference, particularly on softer stuff like that fbe burl. Don't be down on your finish, either... it is looking really good.

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## justallan

I'm actually feeling pretty darned good on these. The finish isn't the best, but I'm okay with it for now and will continue to knock them out and try different stuff and techniques until I get it down. If I thought I could do it perfect the first time I would never have started it, what's the challenge?

Reactions: Like 3


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