[Jewelry making - Article 00534] - Re: [Orchid] Ideal vacuum pump specs

[James Binnion]

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    The ideal pump would be 5 cfm for a small to medium sized bell jar
    to achieve the vacuum at a rapid enough speed for proper degassing of
    the investment. For casting only using solid flasks 3 cfm or even
    less will do. But for perforated flask casting you will need the 5
    cfm at a minimum or a very large tank to act as a vacuum reservoir.
    Now with that said, when I was first starting out I used an
    aspirator pump (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirator) to invest and
    cast. The one I have is similar to this one here

    http://www.hogentogler.com/catalog/page_176.pdf 

    It will pull close to 29 in Hg vacuum if cold water is used and the
    water pressure is 35 psi or greater. It is a little slow but if you
    use the smallest bell jar you can make and small solid flasks it
    works well enough for the small studio. You can build a bell jar
    from a piece of heavy wall steel pipe and a couple of 1/2" thick
    acrylic or lexan sheets and some sheet rubber to make the seals. 

Jim

James Binnion
jbin AT mokume-gane.com
James Binnion Metal Arts
http://www.mokume-gane.com
360-756-6550
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