Florida Bandsaw Sale

[rocky1]

You can make a vacuum chamber for stabilizing out of that 5 gallon paint pot Rocky. There are a few tricks about how to run it. I have one and it works great with Cactus Juice. PM me if you want details.

Mark

Vacuum chamber I have, I need it for a pressure chamber, however I may rig it to go directly from vacuum to pressure. Which would require a little additional plumbing of valves and gauges.

John, if Rocky passes on that paint pot and it's still available I'd get you the money to pick it up for me.

Let you know in about 4 - 5 hours guys, headed to pick up the paint pot here in about 15 minutes.

 

[JohnF]

Colin, Rocky,I will pick it up for either of you next week if you want me to. I was thinking more about it and I'm pretty positive it is new. It didn't have any gauges in the top either. Just a couple tapped 1/8" npt holes. Maybe they were in the bottom of the box. I didn't look too hard. Also it wasn't 5 gallon. It looked like a gallon can would sit inside it easily enough though. Not sure what size that would make it. I could text pictures of it to a cell # before buying too.

 

[Schroedc]

Colin, Rocky,I will pick it up for either of you next week if you want me to. I was thinking more about it and I'm pretty positive it is new. It didn't have any gauges in the top either. Just a couple tapped 1/8" npt holes. Maybe they were in the bottom of the box. I didn't look too hard. Also it wasn't 5 gallon. It looked like a gallon can would sit inside it easily enough though. Not sure what size that would make it. I could text pictures of it to a cell # before buying too.

I'll message you, for what I do even if it was only a gallon or a gallon and a half it would be big enough as long as it was rated for a high enough pressure

 

[deltatango]

It works great both ways Rocky, plus a 5 gallon bucket fits inside!
Here's my rig. 5 Gallons CA Technolgies (80 PSI) + Precision Scientific D150 pump - 6.5 CFM
Stabilizing or casting.

 

[rocky1]

Well I'm hung out to dry until Monday, drove 100 miles up there and they were closed. First time I haven't called ahead, first time I've seen them closed before noon on a Saturday. Wasn't by myself, another gal at the gate looking to pick up an item they forgot. She likewise said something was wrong, they're always there Saturday morning. Oh well... Call Monday, and drive back up there I guess.

It works great both ways Rocky, plus a 5 gallon bucket fits inside!
Here's my rig. 5 Gallons CA Technolgies (80 PSI) + Precision Scientific D150 pump - 6.5 CFM
Stabilizing or casting.

View attachment 115033

That's what I was thinking Mark. Install an air hose fitting on the vacuum pump, Tee my gauge port for vacuum and pressure gauge, and add a few additional valves, I should be able to pull vacuum, bleed that off, and go straight into pressure simply by changing position on a few valves.

 

[Schroedc]

Well I'm hung out to dry until Monday, drove 100 miles up there and they were closed. First time I haven't called ahead, first time I've seen them closed before noon on a Saturday. Wasn't by myself, another gal at the gate looking to pick up an item they forgot. She likewise said something was wrong, they're always there Saturday morning. Oh well... Call Monday, and drive back up there I guess.



That's what I was thinking Mark. Install an air hose fitting on the vacuum pump, Tee my gauge port for vacuum and pressure gauge, and add a few additional valves, I should be able to pull vacuum, bleed that off, and go straight into pressure simply by changing position on a few valves.

Just make sure you have valves to isolate the gauges when you are using one or the other, Apply pressure and you'll blow up your vacuum gauge and apply vac and the pressure gauge will go to heck.

 

[rocky1]

Yeah, that I do know; they don't go both ways unless you go to a combination gauge. Which that can be had fairly inexpensively, and might be a better plan over the long haul honestly, considering the nature of the beast. Save the cost of parts to plumb the second gauge and valves, fewer fittings to leak, less goodies to get banged around, and you avoid the potential for gauge damage if one forgets to swap around valves in the course of things.

 

[deltatango]

That's a good idea. Mine already had the pressure guage and shutoff for it. I mostly do vacuum so no problems really, plus I'm overly careful. If you're going to use the paint pot for vacuum, be sure to check under the seal for any rust and clean it out if there is. I always vaseline the seal and the rim of the pot. Makes for a better seal.
I have an extra valve that has a shut off and an intake hose fitting. I pull a dry vacuum for an hour and a half or more, sometimes 2 and shut the vacuum off and put the hose in a bottle of Cactus Juice, or a 5 gallon bucket, whichever size I'm doing. Once that goes in, and it is immediate, I start pulling the vacuum again. No need to worry about watching the bubbles with this method. After another 1-2 hours, I shut down the vacuum and let everything soak under pressure overnight. Then I open the valves and pull the top. Depending on how big a load, I just let the wood soak in the Cactus Juice until ready for cooking. A knife maker friend and I developed this routine and it is tried and true. From my perspective it's the best way to do big batches of wood.

 

[rocky1]

-30 - 9 - 60 Combination Gauge - $12.84 - Pretty sure I can't buy and plumb the 2 gauges for that, and the Speedaire pot doesn't appear to be rated but 50 PSI, so this one is adequate for that pot.

-30 - 0 - 100 Combination Gauge - $12.43 - Should anyone want something with a little more range.

If you want a spendier gauge, Grainger has a fairly wide selection of premium gauges, depends on what you want to spend.

 

[rocky1]

Well went and got the pressure pot today... They closed at 11! Had there not been a half dozen police officers on the road, and the trunk monkey at Hardees had given me my breakfast to go, like I asked, we'd have made it in time. But whatever... My fault, call before driving from now on.

Got it paid for, went out looking for it, couldn't find it. Second lap around spotted it hiding between two pallets of paper. Which is right where it was in the original picture now that I look back on it.




Didn't look like much until I got out and walked up to it, and holy sh1t!! Thought I was going to have to go find help to load the damn thing! Grabbed it and pulled it out of the dirt, it's buried about 2 inches in the above picture. Little liquid sloshing around in it, wasn't real impressed with that since I was in the Highlander. But I did bring a drum liner, so I kinda slid a bunch of that up under it, then tipped it the other way and pulled it up around it. Grabbed it up and headed for the car... Was glad it wasn't very far over there too! Thing must have weighed 80 lbs. or more, figured it must be about full of whatever was sloshing around.

Tipped it over twice on the way home, both at the same intersection. Never spilled a drop! Which was good!! Got home and opened it up, and there was about 2 1/2 gallons of what appeared to be water and a pentachlorophenol or copper based wood treatment of some nature. No strange odors, just smelled nasty, 1 spot of rust on the side, but not pitted enough to be of concern. Going to take some serious scrubbing to clean it up

What isn't shown in the picture is the gun is still attached to the pot. May be able to clean it up and have a serviceable 5 gallon industrial paint pot, rather than just a pressure chamber.

Hoses don't look good, but I wasn't looking at them very close. Pot is going to need some serious scrubbing but overall it looks to be in pretty good shape. Locks are all very much functional, gasket looks good, gauge is broke, but that's getting replaced anyhow. Unfortunately I jumped the gun ordering the -30 - 0 - 60 gauge thinking the pot would only be rated 65 lbs, as this one is rated 110 psi at 250 degrees.

 

[deltatango]

Whoah Rocky! That's a good thing. 110 PSI is great! All the more protection for you if you use it as a dual chamber for vacuum and casting. A lot of them only go to 80 PSI. That's what mine does, and it's an almost new CA Technologies paint pot. Yours is relatively new too - 2004.
For $100 bucks - I'd say you really lucked out on that man.
You're not afraid of hard work, I know, so once you get that thing shined up you're gonna be a happy camper.

 

[rocky1]

Yeah, I am impressed!! This was a much better deal than the Harbor Freight pot I was looking at. Going to have to build a cart or stand or something to wheel it around on though because this sucker is HEAVY!!