Home made vacuum or pressure chamber

Lonnie Sweet · Post by **Lonnie Sweet** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:41 pm

My brother is a certified pressure welder and I was looking around his shop the other day and noticed he has some thick wall steel pipe laying around (24" by 60 long). He also has some smaller pipe and lots of flanges for the bolts. Welding it up (on wheels) to any size I want is no problem (24X24), with a solid bottom and the bolt on flange for the top will cost me nothing. I've looked around and I can get a 5cfm vacuum pump for $200. Is this sufficient for a degassing pot?

Or, I already have a large compressor in my garage for my tools and nailers, would it be enough to supply the pressue into the pot if I decide to go that way?

Which is better, degassing or pressure casting? I've only been casting my parts for a few months now. And as you can tell, it's still new to me.

I'm not worried about his welds as he works on high pressure pipelines all the time.

futch · Post by **futch** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 4:04 pm

pressure casting imo. bubbles have more time to escape curing silicone.