What are your favorite fittings and tubes to use? Starting at the pump and all the way to the mold.
Does anyone use a manifold to hook up multiple lines? Or have a reservoir tank to act as a shock absorber for when a new mold is opened? What about tube sizes and material? Do you use teflon to seal the threads on fittings? Pros/Cons of what you have experienced.
Thanks,
To ring in for the cheapest in vacuum infusion technology I solely use materials bought from the local hardware store. I use 1/4" ID vinyl tubing with barbed fittings and my vacuum shutoff is a push to connect ball valve. When the infusion is complete the line is shut off with bent tube and a welding clamp.
I am curious to the other answers though. Do any of you professionals use electronically controlled valves? Also I’ve read that some manufacturer’s close and open different inlet valves during an infusion to optimize resin flow and speed up production time. Has anyone seen that as well?
Here is a photo of a mould we made a few weeks back. It is 6 4m^2 layers of 1200gsm glass quad, it took 12kgs of resin and an hour to infuse. There is also another part out of shot on the left being infused at the same time. I’ll break it down from the pump(s) to funnel/bucket.
-You can see one pump on the table and the green hose going to our big pump from the black resin pot. These have a quick release fitting.
-The pot has a brass push on barb, which we wrap tacky tape on before pushing the hose on. If the barb blocks I drill the resin out, easy.
-19mm Nylex garden irrigation hose with tee’s. Again we wrap the tee with tacky before pushing on the tee.
-Electrical spiral wrap, vacuum is around the edges and inlet is along the top.
-Inlet going to the fuket (funnel bucket) where the is a barb glued into the bottom of it.
Also you may see a little blue thing on the bench by the chair, it’s an ultrasonic leak detector (http://www.tequipment.net/AccuTrakVPE.html). They are expensive (around $300) but they will pay for themselves in less wasteage and time looking for leaks.
I have also used one of these: http://www.vacmobiles.com/products1.html from Vacmobile with a 4way manifold and it was awesome for a staged infusion.
I usually use 1/4"x3/8"od polyethelene tubing with ferrule fittings. Sometimes between the vacuum resevior and the pump i will use nylon reinforced hose with air compressor quick disconnect fittings. A little sticky tape around the fittings to help prevent leakage.
Currently i’m not using the a/c quick disconnects, just PE tubing and brass NPT fittings.
After doing some reading online, is it true that a basic air compressor tank can be used for a vacuum tank?