Sick of buying useless pumps! - REWARD for assistance

General Composites Discussions Equipment Talk
#1

Hi guys

I’ve had enough of buying useless vacuum pumps from ebay and need some assistance.

I’ve bought 2 pumps now both of which are unsuitable even for vacuum bagging. I must have made a mistake figuring out the pressure conversions they quoted.

What I’d like is a pump that will comfortably cope with resin infusion. I’m at sea level in the UK and I’ve got £100 (approx $195) which would ideally get it delivered to my door, am I being unrealistic?

Just as a sweetner to persuade you guys into action, the person who leads me to the successfull purchase of a suitable pump will be rewarded with 1sq meter of 385gsm carbon twill.

Cheers
Andy

#2

Andy, i guess within reason the more you pay the better the pump, i bought mine off ebay 3 years ago for £650. It does get used a lot and runs perfectly, pulling perfect vacuum or close to most days. There are some good ones on ebay. As you probably know the vac pump is very important more so for infusions so i`d at least double maybe triple the amount your willing to pay and if buying from ebay go for the guys that sell pumps on a regular basis.

Baz

#3

I have a Robinair 15600 that works great on infusion but they run around $250, its a wet pump so you need to have oil and change from time to time. They make lower CFM pumps that should also work, look for how many micron’s it will pull to the 15600 pulls to 20.

#4

Paid $10 bucks for a couple of refridgerator pumps at an appliance repair place.
I only use one of them and have only needed the one in the year that I’ve been using it. Pulls 29" easily and can evacuate a hood mold in about 1 min with the additional tanks that I made for it. I probly woudn’t use it to do anything bigger though
other pros for the fridge pump - runs perfectly quite so you can find leaks easily, infusion is a snap with it, CHEAP!

go get one!

#5

what sort of attachments do you have to make it work, any pics? when you bought the pump from the repair shop did they have the freon removed from it, or did you have to deal with it yourself?
Does it require oil?

#6

there are robinair pumps on uk ebay most of the time,pretty much any of them will work,mine was about £100,its a bit noisy but infuses fine.like this one that finished- http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/robinair-cooltech-6-cfm-vac-pump_W0QQitemZ300048092929QQihZ020QQcategoryZ22664QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

#7

Got one of these from Ebay for about £19: http://www.piab.com/Templates/WebBase/Datasheet.aspx?id=6936

You do need a compressor and a vacuum tank of some sort, but seems to work ok.

#8

YOU CAN NEVER GO WRONG with robinair pumps!!!

Spend the extra $50 and get it! 1 year over the counter warrenty!!

#9

did you ever find why it was sucking oil? I played with my ball that was in there and it has not done it since. Wow that sounds like I was talking dirty lol

#10

Thanks very much for the responses guys, I’ve also had a few emails from people offering assistance and its all very much appreciated.

It looks like I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and spend a bit more cash. I guess its not too much of a problem in that if I ever need to sell the pump I won’t loose to much cash on it.

#11

Thought I’d update you all on my quest, its been a while but I just picked this pump up tonight that I won from ebay, paid £52 ($100 USD) its brand new in the box and has never been used, model number is Robinair 15401 - it will soon be time to try some resin infusion!. The pump is not filled with oil so I need to buy some, anyone have any idea where I can pick some up in the uk?

#12

Great buy! That thing for $100 is excellent. I believe that’s the 4cfm version, which will evacuate good size mold bags.
We use similar Robinair pump, but 6 and 10cfm models. They work great, and allow several parts to be infused at a time with the same pump. Decently quiet, and hardly vibrate.
I think you’ll be quite pleased with your infusion results now. Do you have a good vacuum gauge?

#13

Quite a score… Does anybody know what the difference is between the red and blue robinair vacuum pumps?

#14

See… patience pays off!:D:cool:

#15

You can google vacuum oil but i got my refined mineral oil from these guys along with some fittings.
http://www.scanwel.co.uk/shop/index.php3?SCREEN=item.inc&item=190

Baz

#16

Cheers Baz, I’ll look them up

I need some flow media as well, where do you get your stuff from in the UK? I seem to be able to find everything other than that.

Haven’t got a vacuum guage yet but I’ve seen a few floating about on ebay so will make a purchase shortly. Need to fabricate some sort of degassing chamber too at some point. The homemade one from plumbing materials looks favourite at the moment :smiley:

#17

I have added stew_b as a moderator and as soon as I can see some daylight over all this stuff from the classroom…:rolleyes:, I’ll be sending him a worldwide refrenace material soucre books to help you over the pond members better!

#18

I will look up UK suppliers, and see if I find any that sell in relatively small amounts.
The vacuum gauge is super important. Otherwise you won’t know if you have a perfect seal, even if the bag looks sucked down.

And what do you mean by degassing chamber? I’m guessing you mean a catch pot that goes between the pump and layup in case excess resin makes it into the vacuum line. Or do you actually mean a chamber for degassing the resin?

Only time we use our degassing chamber is after mixing urethane for pouring or plastic for injection molding.

#19

here you go harv my list of uk suppliers http://compositeforum.werksberg.com/showthread.php?t=1005

Baz

#20

Spot on - sorry, poor choice of words on my account