Maybe 4 stringers, and a scuba tank.?
I use wax paper under my breather scotchbrite pad. So everything just pulls right off. Some times on soft foam I'll triple up the scothc brite pads.
For breathers I’ve used scotchbrite pads, couple lays of old drywall screen, a towel and a couple other unlikely alternatives. But always with plastic underneath to keep them from bonding to the blank. I think the wax paper is a good idea. As I said, I mount my intakes on the opposite side of the board that I’m bagging to so I can draw the bag down across the veneer (or wet lam) with zero wrinkles. I shoot for zero wrinkles all the way down to the apex of the rail at the very least, and with the wet lams I wrap it past the lap line. Those bags stretch.
I have seen use of a modified CD spindle -- the black plastic through the CD centers to hold a stack -- as a low-tech vac bag connector:
http://www.cdrom2go.com/product/usdm-cd-dvd-cakebox-25-disc-black-bottom_674_657.htm
[IMG]http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff13/gu5t/skateboard/random001.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31IcaQQguYL._SL500_AA300_.jpg[/IMG]
Under the category of “yeah, but why would you bother?”, I submit the following suggestion for those backyarders who want to dabble with bagging small pieces prior to committing to doing it with expensive materials. I use this vacuum table for making fin panels, and other small vacuum jobs requiring a stable backing.
It consists of an 18" x 18" x 1/4" plastic panel that I bought at Home Dept for like $10. I laid strips of 2" masking tape in a 12x12 field to use as my "mold release. If any resin gets on the tape - and it generally doesn’t - I can just pull the tape off and replace it. Much simpler that using a real mold release or worrying about accidental bonding. I think I’ve replaced it once since I started using it.
My bag connector - the plastic lid off a squeeze bottle. It’s 1-piece so there’s nothing to leak. The nipple fits neatly into a 1/4" hose so no clamp is necessary. I used a belt sander to bring down the sidewall and I cut little slots across the sidewall to increase airflow. Dirt simple. Can’t fail.
Piece of plastic film + a roll of tape and a folded piece of old drywall screen for my breather. The 1/4" hose section is short and there’s a little plastic 1/4" > 1/8" adapter to connect with the hose from the fish pump.
Lay your piece down inside the taped area, lay your cloth and wet it out, position it how you want it and cover it with the plastic film. Tape it down with the masking tape and make sure there aren’t any open wrinkles around the edges that can leak. Connect your hose and it draws vacuum.
The masking tape obviously isn’t the best stuff to use to seal vacuum bags but this “table” is so small that the pump runs way faster than any leakage.
If you’ve got some old FCS or Future plastic fins you can use them to experiment with the process - rough them up and bag a layer of glass over them. If you don’t run the lamination too dry the direct bag-to-lam contact will smoosh the cloth and give you a nice finish right out of the bag. The only other aspect you need to mess with is figuring out how to avoid the wrinkles.
Thanks gdaddy, great stuff.
Just bagged a board today with my brother. I don’t know what he has, but one of the things in the bag is the stuff you use for hot house shades. It’s like a heavy plastic screen, but there was something else in there. We also wrap the board with plastic before putting it in the bag. We also have the inlet on the opposite side of the surface we are covering, unless we do both sides, but it’s been a long time since we did that. This way we can see the surface and work the skin down nice and smooth. The breather material and all the other stuff is on the opposite side.
New bags are great, the pump cycles very little. So much better than before when we used the bags for too many pulls and the pump would cycle every few minutes.
I plan on giving this a go. I have an aquarium pump with the diaphragm swapped, and a blank. The only aim here is adding cork to the deck, not a composite, a tester I guess you’d call it. My lawyers at the prodigious sydney law firm “shafter scammer and bloodsuckers” have been informed so I’m sweet. Actually, it’s not a deck, it’s an overlay, totally different.
I have an attachment system similar to gdaddy’s that I highly recommend. It is a glue bottle top and cap. With the cap off it fits the shop vac. Suck out the majority of the air. Then put the cap on, attach the 1/4" vac hose and suck it down to desired vacuum. The cap fits the 1/4" hose really well.
We vac bagged a wood skin onto a Clark blank Sunday afternoon. Due to leaks we only got down to 18 hg. Not a problem. Everything looks great......I'm a little confused on how GDaddy and Lilibel attach the plastic bag to the bottle cap.....(spray glue?)
Also....do you guys use the plastic clamps like I posted or the sticky stuff like ResinHead uses.........
Thanks ....Ray
ray
you want some of that “sticky stuff” ?
I just gave a roll away but I might have another let me check
I bought it thinking I’d convert to an adjustable rocker table like in my vacuum bagging video
just never built one like jesus
got all the pieces lying around
we can bring up the tape friday and give it to Keith if you want to make like Jay.
I just use the clamps
you don’t have to replace them as often as you eventually have to do with the windshield mounting tape
let me know
Hey Stingray,
I plan to try pvc pipe and polythelene foam insulation sleeves as bag clamps with aquarium airpump setup.
head against wall
18HG is plenty of vacuum to clamp a veneer. More than enough. I’ve done several with the fish pump and it doesn’t pull near than much.
For the bag connection I cut a 1/4" slit in the bagging material and slip the neck of the lid through that from the inside. A couple of thin strips of duct tape on the outside to seal it up. Thin strips wrap around the contoured neck a little more cleanly and neatly.
I use the bag clamps because I reuse the bags. Plus, it’s no drama if you decide to open the bag up again to make an adjustment. On the end that stays clamped I tape the leftover flap down on the bag with duct tape to ensure the seal. Paranoia.
Thanks everyone!.....It's so simple....and all this stuff gets so complex....ha,ha.
There's and open exchange between Keith's house and Ray's place....just a couple of Sway's guys stoked on building boards......we are very Low Tech....we trade stuff and ideas all the time....drop by some time.........Ray
I thought these things could hardly die, but mine did. Just glad I tested it before I had wetted the glass. They are pretty cheap on ebay, too bad the shipping cost is way more than the pump 
I use what Bert Buger originally suggested in his Vac bagging thread- universal multi purpose adhesive (aka masking tape).
So i dug out a very small aquarium tank pump and had a quick play with switching the valve round and managed to get it set up as a vacuum however it was very weak. I went today to the pet store to look for a larger pump and it turned out there was a huge range to chosse from. They were all rated in gals or LPH? the smaller one’s were around 70 glals or 320LPH and the larger 140gals or 640LPH the small one had two out puts and the larger had 4 so i asume its just doubled up inside.
Can some one who has aquarium setup give us any advice on what sot of size pump i may need?
many thanks
Charlie,
Are you planning on using it more than once? Are you planning on doing a good job? If so, like resinhead said, ebay - get a real pump. And the mac valve is a must.