I just got done making this PVC vacuum pump. This seems to be a great design for a vacuum pump, I did make one modification to it that may save you time building it. I moved the exhaust check valve that comes out of the side of the 2” pipe, I moved that check valve to the bottom of the 1 ¼” piston cap and so then it vents out the top of the push/pull handle. This change seems to make it easier to build this pump. I hope this helps someone.
I was worried about the placement of the vent. It would be impossible to replace if needed as the parts are glued and you can’t get to it. I’m looking to vacuum seal jars in a 2.5 gallon glass chamber is this pump capable.
In this design, max. vacuum achievable is determined by the pressure required to open the check valves. Small 1/3 psi check valves are available at low cost. That lets 97.7% atmosphere to be removed so, with 29.9"Hg barometric pressure, you could achieve the removal of 29.2"Hg (741.7mmHg) air pressure. Atm. press. @ sea level is 760 Torr (mmHg) so this pump, when fitted with 1/3 psi valves could pump down to slightly less than 18.4 Torr. The key part is the valve on the inlet side. Great Job!
Going wider makes the pump exponentially harder to pull up on. A two inch diameter piston takes around 45lbs to pull up at full vacuum no matter how long the shaft is, but go to three inches and you're at 100lbs. Doable, but a lot of work. Finding a piston to fit three inch pipe is quite a bit harder as well.
Yep that would help. You also have to account for a small amount of air still remaining in the chamber after the down stroke, which is where a longer chamber will allow more vacuum to be drawn since it will give more room to 'dilute' the little bit of air that is never forced completely out. Dilute isn't really the best word, but I think it paints the picture.
I believe I got it down around 28in/hg. The longer the pump body and piston stroke the deeper a vacuum it will be able to pull, but I found this size to be the most convenient to use.
It's two sheets of polycarbonate laminated together for the base with a schrader valve threaded in as the air release and a quarter inch hose adapter running to the pump. A big rubber gasket I cut out of a sheet to seal it. The bowl I am using is just the heaviest I could find locally, but I do not recommend using anything other than a real bell jar. If the bowl were to fail it would send glass everywhere at high speeds.
Another one for future use. Thanks! And nice technique for making the groove for the o-ring. I've gotta remember that for making pulleys. I've been doing it without the drill but with the drill you'd get a better result, as well as being easier to do.
Some hardware and auto parts stores have sheet rubber for making gaskets. Sometimes it's red, not black. If you can't find any you can just buy large rubber washers and cut pieces for your valves out of them.
I'm an auto technician, and most hand-help vacuum pumps you buy to use as a diagnostic tool are tiny and break often, even though the bodies are brass, the valves are pretty cheap. I plan to make one of these to use when at home, since I'm not spoiled with an HVAC machine to pull larger systems down when away from the shop!
Nope. This machine will not achieve the vacuum levels necessary to evacuate an HVAC system (500 microns or less). You will unknowingly leave too much atmosphere in the system.
The valves do work better with grease, but there's no need to apply it to them specifically. If enough grease is used on the piston the valves will be covered in the excess.
I'm not sure how much vacuum is required for them, but if 28 in/Hg is enough then yes. You can pull more vacuum as well with this design if you increase the pump and shaft length.
Bike pumps are cheap and common so I really don't have much reason to make one. If you could take the one way valve on the outside of the pipe and figure out how to connect a hose over the outlet it would be able to act as a bike pump from that line. This large of a diameter of pump body would make it very hard to reach high pressures though.
Nice project. Use E-6000 glue. It is the best. Very strong, and flexible. I use it for all my projects. The valve design is very common. In engines they are "reed valves".
I thought about it but there wasn't enough time to go over them in the video. Besides...I blew one of them up accidentally when I was testing my vacuum cannon. The projectile blew through the backstop I was using and hit the pump which I had stored behind it.
If you can smell any odor when you sniff the insides of the pump or tubing, these are gases emitted by the materials used in the pump's construction. Try to use materials that have no smell. Clear vinyl tubing such as Tygon brand usually does not outgas.
You got big fast, NightHawk... I was your 6th subscriber I believe... now you have thousands... darn you! Keep up the amazing work! I loved your videos from the start!
Lubricate the piston seal with silicone paste . Garbage Freight has hole cutters to cut rubber very efficiently with a drill motor , use dish soap to lubricate the bit .
Because it's not a perfect vacuum, there's still some air in there and always will be. It's impossible to create a perfect vacuum, so the bulb will always burn out eventually. It just lasts longer than in open air.
Nice... and I think I have all that already. I think I would shield the jar too, maybe an acrylic box or something. At the very least to minimize the damage. I'll wear my shields, of course. ;) thanx for the response.
This is a fantasic pump. You should always use vasaleine to lube and seal air pump O rings though. The grease you used will likly destroy the o ring. I wonder how long it will last. I'd expect about 2-3 years, then the O-ring will be getting fairly had and likely have shrunk a bit. At least you will be able to get in there and fix it :)
@@MongrelShark O-rings for faucets and such are lubed with food safe silicone grease aka plumbers grease not a petroleum based grease Vaseline may work but silicone grease is the thing.
As much time as it's been since my last video. Gotta think of it, figure out how to build it with common stuff, how to make it interesting, and then film it. I made two prototype pumps for this video before coming up with this particular design.
If I may, they'll also burn out in vaccum because of the big decrease in the melting point of the tungstein inside the bulb because of the low pressure, being that temperature low enough to accually be lower than the heat produced by the fillament itself while on. This is why they use inert gases to pressurize the inside of the bulb.
Aren't scuba tanks typically run up to 3000psi or so? The most you could ever hope for from your typical air compressor, or even homemade is 500psi, and that's really pushing it. More likely is 150-200psi. You could refill the tanks at that lower pressure no problem, but I expect you wouldn't get more than a few dozen breaths out of them. Maybe there is a portable high pressure compressor out there that I don't know about that would be suitable, but It would be expensive and slow if it exists.
Maybe you could scale this down to a small handheld type pump? I know you wouldn’t get as much vacuum but it would be useful for other smaller things. Great video though. 😊
@@Nighthawkinlight yeah I get that. What I was thinking is something like a mityvac bleeder system. They are ever increasing in price so any money saved is great, hence why I was asking 👍
I would recommend giving any areas that are to be bonded to the PVC via CA (super glue) to be given a light sanding with a 180 or so thus giving more surface area for the glue to bond to. Anyways, interesting video! Thanks for sharing.
Great video. One suggestion: screen with complete list of parts spelled out. One question: how to create pressure (vacuum) release after vacuum has been drawn from container. The sound of air re-entering the container is audible, but the mechanism to achieve it without explosive results isn't obvious.
I think you are the most AWSOME person EVER!!!!!! I love all the stuff you do you are REALY Inspiring. I find is so great, useful and fantastic that you put the as videos up. I also have a question would you be able to tell me about how much it will cost to get all the parts for this?
NightHawkInLight Okay, well, I have now attempted to build it. I followed your specifications carefully (I used lithium grease as my lubricant, and it seems to be working pretty well) but am having trouble with the valves. I ended up creating a kind of spring-loaded ball valve inside of the brass fitting at the tip of the PVC tube to block air from flowing back into my vacuum chamber, but the rubber flap on the side of the tube isn't holding much of a seal unless I hold it closed with a finger or two. Have just gotten some thinner rubber to try out. Looks like you had success with these rubber flaps in the past-- any pointers/ warnings?
30 Hg is the theoretical maximum. With this pump I can get to 28. With a longer pump you could do better, but it would start to get awkward to pull it up all the way if the shaft was much longer. Besides that there's no reason you couldn't increase the length of the shaft and pump body to pull a deeper vacuum.
your idea of building the pump is better than that of grant thompson although he built a normal water pump....the usage of rubber as a substitute for one way valve was quite great!
Some want more vacuum like me, but wider is not a god option as it is difficult to find a closet flange bigger than 3x4. I made mine 6" longer so I could use the same materials. For a slight (and I mean slight) increase you could also use a larger hose and hose adapter. I had to use 1/16 for the valve on the inside and the outside valve. With the thicker rubber on the inside it didn't want to seal well so I used it on the inside and fixed the problems
Making it wider would increase the resistance exponentially in any case. A 2" pump has about a 45lb draw, a 3" pump would be over 100lb at a heavy vacuum. That could get pretty tough to use after a while, but a good workout.
I personally would tap and dye the cap it would create a easier to maintain in the event of need. This would also allow you to keep the end product for a longer amount of time. Just my thoughts on this.
Interesting idea: make an airgun target with a vacuum cannon like system, one-way valve to hold in air. It would just be like an endcap with aluminum foil. based on the volume (sound) of the vacuum cannon, it would be an excellent target in conjunction with your mousetrap targets. Then again... I haven't the foggiest of if this would work.
One suggestion I have is to use the piston itself as the outlet Have the second one way valve be, instead on the outside, be on the inside of the 1.25" cap and a hole at the top of the piston to let air out, it would simplify construction of the base
well design a better one please :) Also could you please put water under the vacuum please? I want to see if the vacuum is powerful enough to boil and then freeze the water
Well, I prefer using my body mass + gravity to my favour :) But youre right, that would be one more seal to make. BTW I own a 25$ air pump for camping purposes that sucks (or pumps, depending on what adapter I use) on both strokes. Perfect for bleeding the brakes on my motorbike and car.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 87 วันนี้!! คู่เอก "ก้องชัย vs โชคปรีชา"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YN6e7HVnekw/mqdefault.jpg)
I just got done making this PVC vacuum pump. This seems to be a great design for a vacuum pump, I did make one modification to it that may save you time building it. I moved the exhaust check valve that comes out of the side of the 2” pipe, I moved that check valve to the bottom of the 1 ¼” piston cap and so then it vents out the top of the push/pull handle. This change seems to make it easier to build this pump. I hope this helps someone.
I was worried about the placement of the vent. It would be impossible to replace if needed as the parts are glued and you can’t get to it. I’m looking to vacuum seal jars in a 2.5 gallon glass chamber is this pump capable.
A wonderful build that is terrifically explained… you earned my subscription.
ive seen several of these videos tonight, researching for a project and , this by far is the best done video ive seen. thanks a million.
In this design, max. vacuum achievable is determined by the pressure required to open the check valves. Small 1/3 psi check valves are available at low cost. That lets 97.7% atmosphere to be removed so, with 29.9"Hg barometric pressure, you could achieve the removal of 29.2"Hg (741.7mmHg) air pressure. Atm. press. @ sea level is 760 Torr (mmHg) so this pump, when fitted with 1/3 psi valves could pump down to slightly less than 18.4 Torr. The key part is the valve on the inlet side. Great Job!
Going wider makes the pump exponentially harder to pull up on. A two inch diameter piston takes around 45lbs to pull up at full vacuum no matter how long the shaft is, but go to three inches and you're at 100lbs. Doable, but a lot of work. Finding a piston to fit three inch pipe is quite a bit harder as well.
Impressive engineering is involved to keep both materials and assembly simple. Well done.
Yep that would help. You also have to account for a small amount of air still remaining in the chamber after the down stroke, which is where a longer chamber will allow more vacuum to be drawn since it will give more room to 'dilute' the little bit of air that is never forced completely out. Dilute isn't really the best word, but I think it paints the picture.
You have an amazing narrating voice.
Also, you are a clever man.
10/10
I'm really glad I went digging through your older videos. I'm definitely going to make one of these.
I'm very proud of this project. My vacuum pumps all still work perfectly years later. It's a great design.
That's a good idea. That should work quite well also.
I believe I got it down around 28in/hg. The longer the pump body and piston stroke the deeper a vacuum it will be able to pull, but I found this size to be the most convenient to use.
Do you think this is capable of removing enough air out of 2 1/2 gallon glass jug to seal mason jars
@@oldtymeliving4198 Definitely, consider modifying a bike pump though, as that might work better
hi. diameter 50 mm strok 800 mm is i good for vacuum 0,9 bar about what do you think. can u help me ı have problem about vacuum
It's two sheets of polycarbonate laminated together for the base with a schrader valve threaded in as the air release and a quarter inch hose adapter running to the pump. A big rubber gasket I cut out of a sheet to seal it. The bowl I am using is just the heaviest I could find locally, but I do not recommend using anything other than a real bell jar. If the bowl were to fail it would send glass everywhere at high speeds.
Should be. The water would be contaminated with grease though, so you might want to use a different lubricant for that purpose.
Another one for future use. Thanks! And nice technique for making the groove for the o-ring. I've gotta remember that for making pulleys. I've been doing it without the drill but with the drill you'd get a better result, as well as being easier to do.
RimstarOrg the man the myth the legend
Love this channel. If (when) society collapses, the smart will survive. :)
Some hardware and auto parts stores have sheet rubber for making gaskets. Sometimes it's red, not black. If you can't find any you can just buy large rubber washers and cut pieces for your valves out of them.
You sir are the king of DIY projects
Yep, 28's about right. With a longer pump body you would be able to pull more but it starts getting a little tall.
I'm an auto technician, and most hand-help vacuum pumps you buy to use as a diagnostic tool are tiny and break often, even though the bodies are brass, the valves are pretty cheap. I plan to make one of these to use when at home, since I'm not spoiled with an HVAC machine to pull larger systems down when away from the shop!
Nope. This machine will not achieve the vacuum levels necessary to evacuate an HVAC system (500 microns or less). You will unknowingly leave too much atmosphere in the system.
The valves do work better with grease, but there's no need to apply it to them specifically. If enough grease is used on the piston the valves will be covered in the excess.
this guy really loves his pvc.
Him and kipkay are purely just inventive
I use a black backdrop and increase the contrast slightly in post.
can i just say this one thing this man right here is awesome
I'm not sure how much vacuum is required for them, but if 28 in/Hg is enough then yes. You can pull more vacuum as well with this design if you increase the pump and shaft length.
Omg, its awesome, you should make more vids, like putting water in it, or leafs to dry out. Amazing project.
Bike pumps are cheap and common so I really don't have much reason to make one. If you could take the one way valve on the outside of the pipe and figure out how to connect a hose over the outlet it would be able to act as a bike pump from that line. This large of a diameter of pump body would make it very hard to reach high pressures though.
This man has a very nice voice.
Nice project. Use E-6000 glue. It is the best. Very strong, and flexible. I use it for all my projects. The valve design is very common. In engines they are "reed valves".
Another genius idea and I'm only 14 and have made most of his ideas and use them frequently
If anyone is wondering, degassed marshmellows are pretty terrible to eat XD
Thanx. Yes, I was wondering.
No
This man’s a genius !
You are so full of win. I wish to one day be as full of win as you.
Thank you. Your orderly instruction by itself is 100% merit to this video, far more for the usefulness of this device. Again, thank you and well done!
The principle that this works on reminds me very much of the functioning of the hearts pumping mechanism
This guy is a DIY God!
Thats a really neat way of making a one way valve!
I thought about it but there wasn't enough time to go over them in the video. Besides...I blew one of them up accidentally when I was testing my vacuum cannon. The projectile blew through the backstop I was using and hit the pump which I had stored behind it.
If you can smell any odor when you sniff the insides of the pump or tubing, these are gases emitted by the materials used in the pump's construction. Try to use materials that have no smell. Clear vinyl tubing such as Tygon brand usually does not outgas.
You got big fast, NightHawk... I was your 6th subscriber I believe... now you have thousands... darn you!
Keep up the amazing work! I loved your videos from the start!
i wish there was such PVC parts here. we got really poor selectability. brilliant video anyway both pump and filming.
I love your videos... they are amazing because the way you make some of the hardest things, amazingly simple...
Lubricate the piston seal with silicone paste . Garbage Freight has hole cutters to cut rubber very efficiently with a drill motor , use dish soap to lubricate the bit .
about the same as a bike pump, but it supplies you with the resources, skills and is much more fun than just buying a pike pump
I have. It's not quite sensitive enough for a good vacuum pump.
Because it's not a perfect vacuum, there's still some air in there and always will be. It's impossible to create a perfect vacuum, so the bulb will always burn out eventually. It just lasts longer than in open air.
Nice... and I think I have all that already. I think I would shield the jar too, maybe an acrylic box or something. At the very least to minimize the damage. I'll wear my shields, of course. ;)
thanx for the response.
I made mine w/ a pvc elbow at the bottom because i'm low on materials. thanks for the great vid
much better pvc pump that grant thompson made. :)
This is a fantasic pump. You should always use vasaleine to lube and seal air pump O rings though. The grease you used will likly destroy the o ring. I wonder how long it will last. I'd expect about 2-3 years, then the O-ring will be getting fairly had and likely have shrunk a bit. At least you will be able to get in there and fix it :)
Vasiline is petroleum based so it's also going to eat o-rings.
Yet it doesn’t. My dad has been using Vas on pumps for 50 years. Lasts longer than anything else...Plus its got the right amount of lube vs seal.
Mongrel Shark OK, my bad 😉
@@MongrelShark O-rings for faucets and such are lubed with food safe silicone grease aka plumbers grease not a petroleum based grease Vaseline may work but silicone grease is the thing.
If you place the external valve on the inside of your piston cap it will save you some fabrication steps. And the air can exit through the handle
I'm so glad I found the x2 playback speed adjuster.
Thank you a lot! I used this + calcium chloride for my freeze drying science fair project.
As much time as it's been since my last video. Gotta think of it, figure out how to build it with common stuff, how to make it interesting, and then film it. I made two prototype pumps for this video before coming up with this particular design.
Great to see you're still making awesome stuff, keep it up.
If I may, they'll also burn out in vaccum because of the big decrease in the melting point of the tungstein inside the bulb because of the low pressure, being that temperature low enough to accually be lower than the heat produced by the fillament itself while on. This is why they use inert gases to pressurize the inside of the bulb.
I need to build several of these. I need one for irrigation on the farm which in theory should only need one modification
Seems that PVC and Duck-tape make a great couple.
Aren't scuba tanks typically run up to 3000psi or so? The most you could ever hope for from your typical air compressor, or even homemade is 500psi, and that's really pushing it. More likely is 150-200psi. You could refill the tanks at that lower pressure no problem, but I expect you wouldn't get more than a few dozen breaths out of them. Maybe there is a portable high pressure compressor out there that I don't know about that would be suitable, but It would be expensive and slow if it exists.
I make rocket launchers with pvc tubing, electrical detonators and everything. Ill have to make a video of it soon.
Maybe you could scale this down to a small handheld type pump? I know you wouldn’t get as much vacuum but it would be useful for other smaller things. Great video though. 😊
You could, but the bigger the pump volume the better the vacuum
@@Nighthawkinlight yeah I get that. What I was thinking is something like a mityvac bleeder system. They are ever increasing in price so any money saved is great, hence why I was asking 👍
Hi I’m looking to make a Vacuum Cannon without a birst disk should I try or should I just use a birst disk@@Nighthawkinlight
I would recommend giving any areas that are to be bonded to the PVC via CA (super glue) to be given a light sanding with a 180 or so thus giving more surface area for the glue to bond to. Anyways, interesting video! Thanks for sharing.
This is brilliant. Please let me know what pressure you can achieve (deepest vacuum).
Great video. One suggestion: screen with complete list of parts spelled out. One question: how to create pressure (vacuum) release after vacuum has been drawn from container. The sound of air re-entering the container is audible, but the mechanism to achieve it without explosive results isn't obvious.
Use small ball valves and open them slowly for slow inrush of air. Search for "vacuum chamber" and look how the valves are placed.
Nice design!
You're super cool and make some pretty awesome stuff!
I think you are the most AWSOME person EVER!!!!!! I love all the stuff you do you are REALY Inspiring. I find is so great, useful and fantastic that you put the as videos up. I also have a question would you be able to tell me about how much it will cost to get all the parts for this?
Could you please put a full list of the materials in the description?
So simple yet so beautiful - i really like it. Thx for sharing :)
Great build, what a useful bit of kit.
Brilliant. Well-explained, visually perfectly organized, clear... Nice. Rare. Thank you.
Thanks! I hope you can put the information to good use.
NightHawkInLight
Okay, well, I have now attempted to build it. I followed your specifications carefully (I used lithium grease as my lubricant, and it seems to be working pretty well) but am having trouble with the valves. I ended up creating a kind of spring-loaded ball valve inside of the brass fitting at the tip of the PVC tube to block air from flowing back into my vacuum chamber, but the rubber flap on the side of the tube isn't holding much of a seal unless I hold it closed with a finger or two. Have just gotten some thinner rubber to try out. Looks like you had success with these rubber flaps in the past-- any pointers/ warnings?
The one way valves that control air flow are backwards from a normal air pump.
30 Hg is the theoretical maximum. With this pump I can get to 28. With a longer pump you could do better, but it would start to get awkward to pull it up all the way if the shaft was much longer. Besides that there's no reason you couldn't increase the length of the shaft and pump body to pull a deeper vacuum.
I made one once from a old ac compressor. I never measured the strength, but I was able to boil water at around 55C.
You should make a vid of your vacuum chamber. Is it just a pyrex bowl with an airtight lid and a one way valve?
Still a fantastic video! You sound much different now.
Awesome Idea.
ooh. i get it thanks nighthawk it helped a lot actually have a nice day
your idea of building the pump is better than that of grant thompson although he built a normal water pump....the usage of rubber as a substitute for one way valve was quite great!
Excellent job at explaining and video supporting the explaination. Good Job!
To increase the seal of the rubber one way valves you could also use low pressure spring to force them closed.
Some want more vacuum like me, but wider is not a god option as it is difficult to find a closet flange bigger than 3x4. I made mine 6" longer so I could use the same materials. For a slight (and I mean slight) increase you could also use a larger hose and hose adapter. I had to use 1/16 for the valve on the inside and the outside valve. With the thicker rubber on the inside it didn't want to seal well so I used it on the inside and fixed the problems
Making it wider would increase the resistance exponentially in any case. A 2" pump has about a 45lb draw, a 3" pump would be over 100lb at a heavy vacuum. That could get pretty tough to use after a while, but a good workout.
I personally would tap and dye the cap it would create a easier to maintain in the event of need. This would also allow you to keep the end product for a longer amount of time. Just my thoughts on this.
Hmm could prob go wider if more vacuum is needed. 28 is pretty good though. great tutorial!
Realy cool! I was thinking of a realy simple design for a
valve and there it is!
YOU are the most awesome guy on TH-cam!!! I would love to build your stuff but there's no chance to get the materials..
:-(
If they're big enough to cut into pieces about the same size.
Could you also do a video on making a vacuum chamber?
Interesting idea: make an airgun target with a vacuum cannon like system, one-way valve to hold in air. It would just be like an endcap with aluminum foil. based on the volume (sound) of the vacuum cannon, it would be an excellent target in conjunction with your mousetrap targets.
Then again... I haven't the foggiest of if this would work.
this one way valve flap design might work even better on a flat surface rather than the round side
Could this bring the pressure down to boil water at room temp?
N. Barnett yes
One suggestion I have is to use the piston itself as the outlet
Have the second one way valve be, instead on the outside, be on the inside of the 1.25" cap and a hole at the top of the piston to let air out, it would simplify construction of the base
If you put the out valve on the top of the handle when you push down on a hot day it will be like a fan as your pumping
You could also use a lathe for the o ring groove
well design a better one please :)
Also could you please put water under the vacuum please? I want to see if the vacuum is powerful enough to boil and then freeze the water
Are you going to do a video on the vacuum chamber 'cause I'd like to see that.
Nice design
For your other shock video can you make a tutorial on how to make a shocker and you make another one with the dc powered generators
Awesome and i was searching for something like this but unfortunately it is hard to build, anyway thanks for the video.
Well, I prefer using my body mass + gravity to my favour :)
But youre right, that would be one more seal to make.
BTW I own a 25$ air pump for camping purposes that sucks (or pumps, depending on what adapter I use) on both strokes. Perfect for bleeding the brakes on my motorbike and car.