A Homemade Pump. Yes a Pump, not a cylinder.

Okay, the suspense is over. The pump will now be revealed!

Here it is, tastefully displayed against an orange summer shirt background:

Here’s the cylinder, tastefully displayed against a gray shirt on top of the orange shirt, it did not show up very well on the orange:

Pictures 1, 2, and 3 show the pump just sitting there. Pictures 4 and 5 show the pump running, you can see the light on the timer changing from red to green and the gauge indicating a nice 5 in hg (or wherever I set it) and it goes down to about ½ or 1 in hg, during the off cycle… just enough to keep the cylinder from falling off. All in all, it seems to have worked out quite nicely.

That is so cool. I have a similar gast pump & have been trying to figure out how to do this exact same set-up. Was the wiring difficult to figure out or did it come with directions?

Ooops, I also forgot to ask where you got the on/off dial set-up? I didn’t see that in the catalog.

What a neat, compact setup! You could package these things a make some $$$. Where did you find the needle valve? It looks cool. Do the mufflers help? Are you addicted yet? :)

It does look like a professional rig electron. Congrats on the setup and plumbing! Now shut the fucking thing off and tell us how well it works, will ya?

:surf: I haven’t figured that part out yet, Thunder.

I didn’t put a switch on it, and I just can’t reach the wall socket! :-pink:

:mutley:

I’ll type something up eventually that’s a little more understandable.

Just as I thought. Built a hot rod and forgot the brakes……

Have fun.

Hey, Electron, can you go into some detail on how you made that cylinder? I can get acrylic tube in various diameters at the plastics store, but did you cut the circular piece on top to size? What did you use to glue it to the tube? Is the hole where the valve goes in at the top threaded —or basically how did you get a good enough seal up there? Then I guess you just sanded down the edge where the tube meets the skin, or did you get fancy somehow?

Crikey electron! You sure are one smart cookie! :nodding: That looks so complicated!

How much did it all cost? I saw some high prices listed in the thread, but don’t know exactly which components you picked and how it all adds up.

One other thing. The end of the cylinder looks kind of sharp and uncomfortable. Did you have to pad it or blunt it?

Baz9,

The timer was listed up there in post #22. The terminology is confusing but it’s actually a relay called an interval timer. It’s that first link up there. The wiring, well I had to figure that out myself since this is all DIY anyway. PM me if you need help.

xaxxat,

The needle valve was at Grainger’s too. Here again, the terminology they use is different. We call it a needle valve, they call it a "flow control air valve", LOL, so it drives you crazy sometimes. That’s marketing, I guess.

Grainger Industrial Supply - MRO Products, Equipment and Tools

If you go to the catalog page, page 1435, it also shows the little filter I have on the needle valve, but they call it a muffler. I call it a filter, and the little black canister on the end is what I’m calling a muffler… it certainly looks like one to me! They both cut down noise, but the black canister does a much better job of it. I put the canister on the solenoid side, since it made more noise than the inlet of the needle valve does. I’m thinking of getting another black canister to put on the output (pressure) side of the pump, that is the next noisiest spot.

Ike-

The cylinder was easier than I thought it would be. It took much more time calling around to plastics shops, and time and gas driving to get it, than it actually took to put it together. There is something called a “hole saw” that did the circle real easy. I’ll post some pictures when I can. You do need a good drill to drill it, and use low speed so it doesn’t get too hot from friction and melt the plastic to the saw!

The glue was available at the plastics shop. I had to kind of “visualize it out” ahead of time, so that when I called the plastic places in the yellow pages, I would know the right questions to ask, to save myself hassle. I knew I would need a flat piece for the end. Then it occurred to me that maybe they would have the right glue for the job, right there at the plastics place, so I wrote that on my list. Then finally, the only problems I could see was (1) maybe they want you to be a business customer and have an account with them (won’t sell to the public), or (2) you have to buy some ungodly amount because they have a “minimum order size” policy. So two more questions on the list. Then I could call around, and ask all the places my questions, and I found one that had everything I needed. The only minimum was you have to buy a whole six foot long stick. “Can you cut it for me?” I asked. He said “We can cut it however you want.” From there it was just drive into the city, to pick things up.

I told them I was building “vacuum cylinders” and left it at that. :) A couple of people gave me funny looks for just a split second (especially since they had overheard the two sizes I was most interested in), so I quickly acted like a “pneumatics expert” like it was no big deal at all: “Small vacuum will be applied to it, like the equivalent of 5 or 10 pounds of pressure, if you were talking PSI” I said to him. “Technically, it’s called inches or mercury, but that gives a rough idea.” “It also needs to be clear.” That’s not much, and satisfied his “what are your technical requirements” question, if it popped up (and it did.) “Clear acrylic is what you want, then” he said. He didn’t press the issue any further, and neither did I. :)

Yes the end is threaded. I’ll try a picture of that too when I get a chance.

Thanks a lot. If I decide to do this I might have to pm you if I get confused on the wiring.

I found a very similar “needle valve” @ a local home improvement store similar to Home Depot by the air compressor accessories. It was just a couple of dollars. It’s actually a ball valve, but works great.

Also, I bought a similar Gast pump on e-bay for $55.00 + shipping.