Replies

1. 
   Jamie_Buxton | Mar 10, 2008 05:22pm | #1

   On the bags I build, there's no valve.   There is a piece of 1/4"-ID vinyl tubing which goes from inside the bag to the vacuum pump.  It goes through the glued seam of the bag, and is glued into place when I make the bag.  Inside the bag, the tube is long enough to reach almost to the mouth of the bag, and it is perforated every few inches with a drilled 1/16" hole.  Outside the bag, it plugs on to the barb fitting of the pump.

2. 
   KeithNewton | Mar 10, 2008 05:40pm | #2

   On my main pump, I have a 3/4" hose going to a manifold which is just a block of aluminum with a bunch of holes tapped to 3/8" npt. In those I have 4 ball valves, with hose barbs connected on the other side.

   Although as stated earlier, you can go straight from the pump to bag if you want to keep it cheap and simple.

   I like to have a double ended hose barb about six inches from the bag, so it can be disconnected from the hose for easier storage.

   Getting the hose into the bag can be as simple as cutting a smaller hole than the od of the hose, then forcing it through, then smushing something soft like chewing gum around it. Although I use a string type caulk.

1. 
   EricAnderson | Mar 11, 2008 04:47am | #3

   Hmmm.  Interesting.  Very interesting...

   I just may do that on my 20 mil bags.   For reasons of my own, and possibly I may change my mind after reading your posts, I kind of like a small valve in the thinner bags that I make our of 6 mil material.

1. 
   KeithNewton | Mar 11, 2008 05:11am | #4

   Eric, I know that I have posted this on here before, but maybe you missed it. I have taught bagging to the local club for or five times back through the years, and I try to make it as simple as I can make it so more people will give it a try, and learn to do something that they may not ever try otherwise because of the investment. The cheapest thing that I have come up with, it to take the filter off my air-compressor, and replace it with fittings ending in a hose barb. Then open the tank drain. I don't think this will work with the oil-less pumps.You can buy a box of 80 clear 55 gallon drum liners at Lows or HD for under $15. Punch the hose through a bottom corner, and tape an old shirt-sleeve on the end, to connect it to the edge of a cabinet door. Roll up the open end on a stick, and clamp another stick to it, and you are in business. Those bags may be thin, but they are tough, and about 3' x 5'.

   Edited 3/10/2008 10:41 pm by KeithNewton

1. 
   EricAnderson | Mar 11, 2008 01:57pm | #5

   I followed you up to the

   "tape an old shirt-sleeve on the end, to connect it to the edge of a cabinet door"

   Maybe it is too early in the morning....

   What is the vacuum line and how do you seal the vacuum line to the bag?

    

1. 
   KeithNewton | Mar 11, 2008 02:12pm | #6

   Once the hose is into the bag, if nothing else is done, both sides of the bag will just come together and seal, blocking any air from making it into the end of the hose. You need something which air can move through easily, which makes a connection with the edge of the work piece.As I said this is the quick and dirty poor-man method.