I thought you guys might get a kick out of my new custom vacuum system. I will be using it during the construction of my hollow carbon shell surfboard. It uses an old refrigerator compressor, A cooling fan, 2x 4" OD x 12" PVC pipe tanks, a vacuum guage, vacuum release knob, and a ajustable vacuum switch. The whole system is contained within a 14" x 15" x 16" box which rolls on castor wheels.
A few pics of the construction…
Very nice…look’s like it will suck!
ipcdefg is some kind of builder! Hey, ipcdefg, is the refridge compressor going to give you known reliability for doing a whole board project? I’ve been fooling with a refridge compressor for vacuum experiment but have been thinking about that thing conking out mid lamination on a full size run? John C.
That’s what test runs are for!
It seems to run reliably. I need to set it up on a 30 amp circuit. A few times I pulled too much current and blew the breaker. When the pump turns off it takes a few minutes to reset before turning back on. I think that is a safty feature built into the pump in order to protect a fridge.
That compressor is from a newer fridge. If you get one from an older fridge it’ll cycle faster and be more robust… Oh yeah. And heavier 