# Vacuum rig, part 2



## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

So, as some of you are aware, i recently dabble in vacuum stabilizing wood. Now, my first attempt saw me using a hand-powered vacuum pump, as i was too cheap to buy an electric pump. After working that pump for a few hours, I came to an important conclusion:

#$%! that.

So, heres vacuum chamber mark 2:









A 1/3 hp rotary vane vacuum pump, some 1/4 I.D vinyl tube, a brass 2, couple ball valves and some barb fittings and she lives. Same vacuum chamber as last time. So, so much easier to use now!

Little fun, and to test the chamber. I tied off the open end of a uninflated glove and stuck it in the chamber:









Put the vacuum to it and boom!









Inflated glove. Kinda fun actually...


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

So a very belated update to my experiments. First off, the mark 2 vacuum chamber works like a charm, although i did have to chase down a few leaks in the lid. More importantly though, i was messing around with the resin some more today and found out something rather important: Cactus juice (the stabilizing resin) is fluorescent under blacklight. This is important, as it would allow you to cut a stabilized blank in half, then use a blacklight to check and see how well the resin penetrated, something i plan on doing


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