Vacuum Container question...

Size Matters

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Pull 28"hg on a tea cup and it's no big deal

Pull that in a 30 gallon drum and things will get exciting.

You said "suction" rather than "vacuum" so I suspect the objects of your affection may not take sufficient vacuum to do what you want. Vacuum/epoxy stabilization in usually done in pretty hefty containers from what I've seen.

I could, of course, be wrong

Call them first

Dick Coers

but they sure don't look like a vacuum chamber to me. I hope to hell they don't ever draw a hard vacuum to remove blood from me during a surgery! Looks like you have some fancy flower pots to me.

Re: Vacuum Container question...

John McGaw

Well, they are clearly made for hospital use for drain tube collection. The vacuum provided by the redundant vac pumps (per NFPA 99) in a hospital is usually around -22 inHg but this is in the manifold distribution system and would never be applied to a drainage container for patient safety. From what I can tell the absolute maximum vacuum allowed through the typical in-room regulator is 300 mmHg but looking at the gauges on them they indicate danger at about 1/3 of that range and no-go at 2/3. I think I'd just spring for a nice metal vacuum canister from Packard.

Re: Vacuum Container question...

John in NM

Medical suction is usually pretty low vacuum, but even high vacuum is not a lot of psi (14.7 at sea level). So as Mark said, it depends on size - 14 psi over a large area will do some crushing, on a small vessel it is less of a weight.

Only one way to find out - try it with one

If it doesn't work, you could use what I use - an 8" PVC pipe coupling with an aluminum bottom siliconed on and a piece of 1/2" plexi for the top. I never did much stabilizing with it though, I was degassing resin & silicone for casting. I think one trick to stabilizing is to degass and then pull a vacuum on the wood+resin just short of boiling the resin.

They were free.....

Barry Irby

No loss either way. I will either call the company or see what happens. Someone left them on a pallet I bought.

I looked them up on E-bay. Somebody wants $82 for a case of 4. I would be thrilled to sell them for that. I have 6 left. Gave 2 away.

My Packrat gene was twitching.

Re: Vacuum Container question...

Steve jenkins

Occasionally I do a presentation for our woodworking club on using Vacumn for veneering and clamping. At the beginning I pull a Vacumn on a steel 55 gallon drum. It’s pretty impressive when it collapses with a loud bang