$15 electric vacuum pump for anyone!

Good question about removing the white valve assembly - I removed 3 different ones - all 3 were stuck! I first tried grabbing with my finger and pulling up - did not work. I then used a pencil to lever up from the bottom - hard to describe but it worked. Caution is important because you don’t want to damage the surfaces that mate with other parts. On re-assembly be careful the O-rings don’t get damaged. It will make sense when you have the pump in hand.

You have to find a blunt but thin tool to get under the valve and lever it up. I forget exactly what I used, but once it breaks free, it comes out easily. Thinking about it, you might be able to snake a wire or string under the valve and then pull up on that to pull the valve straight up and out. You don’t have to remove any screws to perform this action.

Got it! I tried working at it with a 90 degree allen key but finally just gripped it with some very fine toothed pliers and supermanned it out… ;^)

Thanks for the suggestions.

Thanks for your reply!

While I understood quite clearly that 3.5 inch Hg is your preferred pressure, it is still way less than what I would have expected to be obtained from the two outlet pump. Still, if you were getting any more pressure than that you’d then need to add in air bleed somehow, and so increasing complexity and cost of your set up. So really you’ve got yourself the optimum situation for your needs without any extra work, congratulations.

Regarding testing with water, STOP! I would not recommend testing that joint for leaks by using water. If I am fully understanding the connections you have made (as seen in your photo), if there is a leak at that joint then the water will be drawn into the innards of your air pump. You do not want any water in there. Perhaps nothing bad will occur, but I wouldn’t take the risk, especially with mains voltage electricity applied! Zzzzzapp! (I see that at this time you have 11,998 posts here at Thunders. Let’s try to get to 12,000 shall we). Instead, why not try a cigarette, or perhaps a candle if you don’t smoke. Use the smoke stream to detect a leak in that joint by placing it closeby. Smoke should be drawn into the joint if it leaks to any significant degree.

You know, I think a leak could be a good thing in another way. Cooling! I’m not really sure if cooling is important, but it could be. If you think about how the aquarium pump works in “normal” use. Basically air is drawn in through an inlet, passes through the pumping mechanism, and then expelled through the outlet. The constant throughput of air would be providing some cooling to the moving parts of the pump mechanism I’d suspect. For our purposes we reconnect the pump inlet to a penis cylinder in order to use the vacuum to draw air out of the penis cylinder. When the pump draws as much air out as it is capable of drawing out, then there would be little or no more airflow through the pump! But the pump is still chugging away, what is cooling it if there is no air flow?

Nothing! Unless of course you you have air bleeding in somewhere… as you would from a leak.

It’s just a thought. I’m extremely exhausted so I may be a little wackier than my usual wacky self.

I had the same thought about the importance of cooling with no significant air flow through the pump. 1 solution in a dual outlet pump might be to leave 1 side blowing air and the other side sucking air. Anyone find a better quality gauge yet?

Thanks for that tip!

I am going to have to get one of these, maybe today. Smertrios, thank you for putting together this tread.

What store are you fellas getting those regular hand pumps with gauges at? Automotive stores? Or ordering from the internet?

A lot of people get the "U.S.General" model from Harbor Freight . It is one of the least expensive models, especially for those made of metal. You can order it online from their website, or go into one of their stores if you happen to have a conveniently located Harbor Freight store in your neck of the woods. Harbor Freight also have the more expensive MityVac models too. Please do read the customer reviews though, as some reviews are not at all favourable!

Cool! :D

I really need to get started with this project.

Mostly posting to also endorse the Harbor Freight pump.

Get thee to a Wal Mart today. I really think you will like this pump.

To make the conversion from pressure to vacuum you only need a small phillips head screw driver to take the cover off and a way to pry the internal pump or pumps straight up to you can rotate the square plate and reinstall.

Thanks for the encouragement. I’ve got a walmart trip on the schedule tomorrow.

Gprent, what do you find is the benefits of an electric pump?

Got one last week and love it. I only use one outlet so far. Make sue when you use the small phillips head screwdriver you use one with a large handle. I almost didn’t get mine apart because I couldn’t get a good grip on my screwdiver and stripped the head out of one of the screws. I don’t have a gauge so I go by feel and I just keep an eye on my package.

There is just something about hands off pumping that just makes it more freeing. Also, the vacuum pump works by pumping at what I presume would be 60 cycles per second, so even though very fast, you are getting a pulsating action going on for better blood flow. At least that’s how I advertise it to myself. :)

Just plug it in while the cover it still off to see how fast those pumps cycle!