hi folks i am new at this can some one help me build a home made pressure pot for degasing resin, i dont have much money so a cheap one is good thanks steve:smile:
Find yourself a pressure cooker or even a regular large cooking pan. (can be second hand)
Find a lid that is strong enough and large enough. Transparent is a plus, but is strictly not needed. If the lid is not transparent, you can make a round hole in it, and install some plexiglass over it. Doing 2 holes like that and you can use a flashlight to check the resin inside.
Only other critical thing is a seal on the edge of the pan. When on a budget, find whatever is working. Self adhesive rubber strip, U-shaped rubber strip, foam rubber.
thanks for the tip i will have a go at it
Good luck. We use thick walled 20 gallon cooking pans. When new these are not cheap, however…
Here’s mine, it has three valves, one to pump, one to part, one to atmosphere.
I vacuum the part down and leak test it.
Then close the valve to part, shut the pump off.
Open the valve to atmosphere.
Remove lid, close valve, de-gas resin etc
Open the valve to atmosphere, remove resin pot, replace lid.
Close valve to atmosphere and Open valve to part, pull full vacuum again.
Now do infusion.
Close off valve to pump and turn off pump.
Tank is now vacuum chamber.
Something like that anyway :rolleyes:
you can use a glass bottle, I use this
they are made for jam ecc ecc.
1 hole in the cap for the vacuum
It’s not professional but it work for little quantity of resin (bottle are 0.5, 1 and 1.5 L)
Don’t use a standard glass! They can explode. Use a old gas bottle or beer barrel, cut it and on top take a 20mm plexi glas or makrolon.
Our largest comes in 30mm plexi top, which deflects some 6mm at full vacuum.
this bottle is for jam and preserves, so it’s ok for vacuum and hot water. For my experience, with 0.95 bar vacuum no problem, with pression I have tried to 1.3 bar, after the lid was losing air.
Ok, only a test with pressure, but with vacuum I never had problems
how large is it?
The pan is 450x450mm, and actually from Italy. (which other country is so culinary advanced??)
For the imperials: 1’6" x 1’6"
very big pan!! I use little quantity of resin.
That flow vacuum do you use? Now I have a small 70 L/min, I’m looking for a 180/230 L/min (for hobby work, and with 220V and 3KW of home electricity meter)
As for pumps, I have a:
dry pump (no oil, no smoke) which does 8,4 m3/h (140 l/m) and 0,02 bar abs
oil lubricated pump (can lose oil through exhaust) 10 or 17 m3/h and 0,003 mbar abs
Both very affordable
More expensive, but very durable:
oil lubricated pump with oil filtered exhaust, 10 or 16 m3/h, 2 or 20 mbar abs.
Is better a dry pump or a oil pump? I have a oil pump now
I use oil pump too and it’s perfect:D
Oilpumps most reach a higher vac level. I prefer the Busch pumps. This is the pressure pot we made and sell if someone is interested. Diameter is 300 and height is 400mm, ideal for a 10l bucket.
saabmatt, why would you need 3 taps? and why drill four holes all together?
I vac the part then once leak tested I can isolate it (the part or mould with tap one) I can then allow atmospheric pressure back to the pot (tap two), I can then use the same pot to de-gas the resin.
Vac the tank and open the valve to the part again, so I can do all this while keeping the part under vacuum, the other valve (tap three) goes to the pump so once infusion is done I can shut the pump off and the tank becomes a vacuum reservoir.
Four holes = three taps and one gauge, as long as they hold vacuum you could have ten holes, tho not sure why you would do that 