Vacuum Setup

I am considering a set up to vacuum composite parts and grains. What type of vacuum set up do you have? Pictures or links are appreciated.

cwbullet said:

I am considering a set up to vacuum composite parts and grains. What type of vacuum set up do you have? Pictures or links are appreciated.

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I am just in the process of changing my vacuum set up, just after using it for 1 layup. I was using a compressor with a vacuum generator however because the generator requires a constant source of air I found it too hard on my compressor. So I just purchased a Robinair 15150 vacuum pump. I posted a couple weeks back asking for ideas on vacuum pumps and Feckless sent me this link, which at first I thought was overkill but the more I learn on the topic this seems like a great way to go, and there are a lot of pics to browse to see how others modified it for their needs. Feckless said he was going to build one so you might want to shoot him a message to see how well it works for this application.

I bought an ACP Auto-Vac system about 15 years ago and have only excellent things the say about it. We had one at work the was heavily used and held up well. It comes with a small reservoir to reduce the pump cycling. I purchased the kit which came with a bunch of stuff to get started. It wasnt cheap back then but I have only had to replace tubing and consumables. I have made 100's of composite parts with it over the years, including R/C plane and UAV parts, and Rohacell-core and honeycomb-core rocket fins. I also have a small 18" x 24" surface plate w/ stand that I bag fins against - no warped fins here.