I just picked up at our company auction a Gast 1/8 hp vacuum pump. What I find on the internet indicates it can achieve a vacuum of 25.5hg. Will this work for a vacuum press? Unfortunately I had to bid before I could find out. I got it for $20.00. Is it garbage? It was in one of our manufacturing labs. Thanks in advance.
The model is “gast doa-p104-aa”
Replies
That should work, make sure to put an intake filter on it. You'd be surprised how much dust it will catch and prevent from entering the pump. It might be a little slow to evacuate the majority of air in the bag, but once it gets down it should be fine.
Thanks to everyone for the responses. I'll get that intake filter to protect the motor. I have been wanting to get into this for a while. My next stop is Joe woodworkers site for plans. Thanks for the Wal-Mart Bag idea.
Looks like you got a bargain. I use a 1/4 hp Gast vacuum pump for chucking on my lathe and it works great. I ditto the comment on using a filter on the inlet. These are available inexpensively from http://www.surpluscenter.com.
Steve
Bones,
You sure that the DOA, is not a 1/3 hp pump?
Anyway, that is a super little pump, I use one all the time. Because it's diaphragm, it runs very quite and it has a running life of around 20,000 hours, so you have no problem with bothering about controls. Just leave the pump running until you take your work out of the bag.
Incidentally, for anything smaller than 52", I use vinyl clothes storage bags from Wal-Mart, they have a zip-lock and a vacuum cleaner fitting to suck out the initial air. The price is around $9.00 for three bags.
So, with some hose and a few fittings, you are in business.
You got a bargain, those little pumps sell for close to $250 new and around $90 on Ebay.
Bones;
You mentioned using bags form Wal-Mart in veneering. Using your shop vac to draw out the air do you have to leave your vac on the entire time the project is in the bag or are you able to seal it off and turn off the shop vac? I have been looking for a cheap way to get into veneering to see if I like it. any extra info would be apreciated.
unless you have a pressure gauge/switch these little pumps are usually rated continuous duty - so they run the duration of the vacuuming time. mine is rated for 40000 hours of running - so that's a lot of pressing at about 2 hours per.jerry
I'm a newbie at this, but after reading up on it at joe woodworkers site, I planed on putting in a check valve between the bag and the pump. If I understand correctly, it should prevent it from allowing the vacuum to back off. If I'm wrong, I'll rething things.
http://www.joewoodworker.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?osCsid=a616214cef7c76106b047e37d782d49a&keywords=check+valve
Willie Martin's response to me had the idea of the Wal-Mart bags. I'm going to give them a try, but have no experience yet. If it works great if not, not much lost. Joe woodworker does provide instructions on making them, and you can purchase from various sites, but they can get expensive.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages?msg=24752.4
I use the vacuum cleaner fitting, just to suck out the initial air. After that, the vacuum cleaner is removed, cap replaced on the bag fitting and the little vacuum pump takes over, running continuously.
A lot of vacuum pumps will get upwards of 25 hg. I think it's equally impotant in the speed in which it does that. If you are planning on doing curved work in a 4' x 8' bag I think you'd want a bigger pump for speedier evacuation.
Gast is an excellent pump. I use their rotary vane pump with a 3/4 hp electric motor on it. 25.5 is more vacuum than you will need for most things. You can easily over vacuum a project with negative result or collapse. An intake filter to keep dust and other gizz out is a definite in the ww environment and will preserve your pump. Also, if using epoxy glue, make sure you run the pump a minute or two in fresh air to evacuate any epoxy off gas which could seize your pump. Have fun..... aloha, mike
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled