Re: I GOT ME ONE, I GOT ME ONE

[Den Socling]

To get wires through a chamber, I run them through a 1/2" x 4" SS nipple. Temporarily wrap electrical tape tight around one end. Put the nipple in a vice with the taped end down and fill it full of potting epoxy. When the epoxy is hard, take the tape off and thread it into a fitting welded into the chamber.

Flanges are good, tight fittings.

To make a door seal, I use half-round neoprene extrusion. One flange remains flat but the other needs to have a channel configured to hold the neoprene. With my square or rectangular doors, strips of SS sheet do the job. Round is more difficult but I have a customer who managed it on two cylinders. Mike's cylinders use hydraulic hose with rope inside to keep it from getting flattened. The neoprene works a lot better.

RE: Mike's mention of blue
I 'introduced' his company to using PVC pipe for cooling water and vacuum. It's so easy to change design or make repairs to PVC. One time I walked in and found that they didn't like the look of the plastic so they painted it all blue.   No more easy repairs. You had to sand the DanG paint off to do any gluing.

[old3dogg]

I used to use the hose/rope compo but the seal didnt last long.
I found a gum rubber tupeing from Mcmaster Carr that works a lot better.Its pretty cheap,easy to put on and last forever.
I can do one of my kiln doors for under $160.
We painted the outside PVC for uv ray protection.
The inside PVC got painted because I think the RF operator just got bored.Old#22 must have been running good that night!

[Fla._Deadheader]

  How do you join the ends to prevent leaking  

[Den Socling]

A little silicon rubber to get a seal. Once it's sealed, atmospheric pressure will push the door down very hard which reminds me, no hinges unless they have slots that allow the door to move toward and away from the chamber.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Already figgered on the door movin in-out before opening or closing.  

 I was maybe thinkin about welding the flange to the END of the tank material, and then, putting a split gasket over the edge of the domed end door  That would mash it against the flange, and there would be no need to groove one side of a flange

[Den Socling]

I think the gasket would get cut in half but that's an interesting idea. I wonder if you could put flanges on both pieces with a gasket around the edge of one. Actually, if you used regular pipe flanges, you could use a regular flange gasket. I would guess that you would bolt the flanges together while welding to assure a perfect mate of the surfaces.

[DanG]

Den, I just had another crazy thought.  Since you don't use the vac pump, the expensive part, could you use one pump to operate 2 chambers?  The cycling times would have to be coordinated, and it might slow down each individual chamber, but that shouldn't be a problem.

[Den Socling]

VacuTherm sold two chambers and switched them back and forth.
More later. I'm busy as the dickens

[Jason_WI]

FL,

To keep it simple with a flange just use some t handle bolts and just clamp it tight like that. 6 or 8 of those should seal it up nice. Kinda like how the door seals on a Harvestor silo. The only problerm I see without having a groove for the seal it might get sucked in if it isn't glued down well.

Jason

[old3dogg]

A few months ago I lost a vac pump and was told the wait for a new pump was 3 weeks.I piped over from one kiln to the other with 3" pvc.No Den.Its still white.It worked but I dont cycle my CP.

[old3dogg]

If your door seal is going to come into contact with a flat surface put a little film of greese around the frame.
My doors are grooved so I buy the gum rubber just a tad bigger and work it into place with a rubber mallet.I can change a seal in about a half hour.

[Den Socling]

As I was saying, VacuTherm used two chambers. Instead of totally losing the vacuum in one chamber, you could connect the two to pull some air out of the one that was going into the vac cycle.

One of my customers has two WoodMizer VK2000's that I put on one big pump. clumsy system. I wouldn't want to do it again.

I've welded a couple wings on big nuts to make something like the tee-bolts. You only need four if everything is flat.

I like the 'D' shaped extrusion because it seals with a light touch. You don't need any messy grease.

[Furby]

Well, based on the name of this thread, I guess you don't need the pair of 22,000 gal alum. tanks I came across.  :-/

[Den Socling]

Yesterday, I met with a company that is interested in drying to 13% for bending chair and table parts. Continuous vacuum serves well but what do you do to get the bent parts down to 6%. You can't put them back between plates. I started talking about 'discontinuous' vacuum drying. The potential customer says 'how about a hybrid vacuum kiln that could do both'.   hmmm  

[Fla._Deadheader]

  We stopped by the local Pressure Treatment Plant, on the way to the camp on Tuesday.

 Talk about surprised.  What we found was SOOOOOOOOOO DanG simple, we can't wait to get started.

 The guy spent about 30 minutes talking to us, and showing us anything we asked about.

 I got so many questions to ask, I don't know where to start.

 The door system will be really simple. The clamping mechanism for the door will be very easy.

 The track is pure simple. The seal will be easy.

 Now, about the heat.  Right now, any piece of metal, left laying in the sun, for 2 hours, will burn the skin, if you try to handle it. If we paint the tank flat black, would we need additional heat, if the temp inside is to be around 80° to 90° ?

 According to the guy, he gets about 2 quarts of water from each batch of fresh Pine. His chamber is 48" dia. X 50 feet long, and he does 4 loads a day, of vacuum and then pressure treat. Soup's on and I'm starvin. Be back.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Need some input here  When figuring the cu/ft of the inside of the chamber, suppose you need a 30 CFM Vacuum pump.  When you fill the chamber with wood, you reduce that cu/ft dimension by around 75%--80%.  Would you still need the 30 CFM pump

 If we install a piping system on the outside of the chamber, can we put a fan inside the piping and have a "Closed loop" air circulation system, using 3 or more ports entering the chamber  That may eliminate closing a valve to permit sealing of the chamber

 Would you HAVE to bleed the chamber of water during a drying cycle, or, can it wait until the door is opened

[J_T]

Wouldn't glossey black get hotter  Can you adjust it so the sun hits it like a solar colector? Could you paint a five gal. buckett inside and out with differnt combinitons of paint set them in the sun an monitor inside temp to see what works best. I don't know zip just thinking first time this week

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Flat Black is best. The heat transfer through the metal should be more than adequate. Just need to hear from the Vac Guru

[J_T]

10 4 Had the same idia long time ago good luck . May find in older post been waiting for a good inventor to work it out . Best way to hide a LP tank put a boat motor on it tell everone it's a sub not none around here  

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Bought 2 Vacuum pumps today. What else do we need