Very happy :)

Been meaning to build this for a while but took ages to find a big cylinder and a switch.
I was going off JoeWoodworker's plans for a bit but he is overly complex, 110V, using a MAC valve to bleed pressure on the pump side as his oil-less diaphragm pumps (that cost 3x more....) won't start up against fullvac. All too hard. I like mine better as its simpler and uses any old cheap eBay pump at $100.

What was putting me off was the only really reliable mechanical diaphragm switch is the SMC ones - $300. Advantage is no relay required, simple, bulletproof, all industries use them as a standard. Then I saw one new, no box, from a closing down sale -at $80.
Then the elusive cylinder showed up on Gumtree. Nice big 60kg refrigerant cyclinder as a reservoir so leak-down takes ages -and it has the same fittings as vac pumps cos its all fridgie gear
So I just had to.


Result....






Added a couple of taps so can do two jobs at once, nice.

For the first time ever, I rotated the pics BEFORE uploading and seabreeze still farks it. Gawd its the only site that does this...

^sweet looking setup.
Reduce or trim picture size before posting. It'll come out right way up.

Select to expand quote

olskool said..
^sweet looking setup.
Reduce or trim picture size before posting. It'll come out right way up.

Yep, just like this. reduced to 1000 horizontal pixels, it was over 2000



Nice job Mark, neater than mine

Nice shop! How will you shape the foam?

It sucks! Good job.

I want.

Select to expand quote

Manuel7 said..
Nice shop! How will you shape the foam?

I cut with side templates and hotwire.
Shaping room is off to the side out of the pics



^^^ and it has never looked like that since lol

Good setup Mark had the same problem with the price for the switch so I become the switch, lucky I had a good seal so didn't run the pump much, bought the vacuum pot with the pump hooked up and worked like a dream

Select to expand quote

Mark _australia said..

Nice! So hand shaping... based on what measurements?

Manuel7 said..
Nice shop! How will you shape the foam?

I cut with side templates and hotwire.
Shaping room is off to the side out of the pics



^^^ and it has never looked like that since lol

^^^ MIne. But everyone copies to some degree huh....