Which vacuum pump and vacuum chamber do I need?

• February 03 2021, by Rutger Collaris
• 6 min reading time

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It is high time to expand the hobby with a necessary accessory; “the Vacuum Pump”. With its buddy “the vacuum chamber” it forms a duo that will deprive any mixture of its air.

Which vacuum pump and vacuum chamber do I need?

What started as a hobby suddenly takes on a serious form. Where you were initially satisfied with “quite a nice casting” you suddenly become critical. Like a true “casting grandmaster” you mercilessly reject one creation after another. Air bubbles...way too many air bubbles!

It is high time to expand the hobby with a necessary accessory; “the Vacuum Pump”.
With its buddy “the vacuum chamber” this pump forms a duo that will deprive any mixture of air.

With all its gauges, hoses, taps and buttons, it seems like a lot of work to tame this machine. In addition, such a combination is not exactly cheap and therefore quite an investment. Your first questions will therefore be; how does such a thing actually work and what should you pay attention to when choosing the right pump? I will try to explain below what you can pay attention to and how you use the vacuum pump.

First of all, it is important to know what vacuum actually is. You speak of vacuum when the environment is provided with a “negative pressure”. That is, remove the air from an environment (in this case the vacuum chamber) and the negative pressure will increase. When the air is removed and the negative pressure increases, a vacuum is created.

Source: Eurovacuum

Enough theory! Which pump do I actually need?
All our sets consist of a pump, a connecting hose and the vacuum chamber.
Points to consider when purchasing are:

• The size of the pump, the larger (and often more expensive) the pump the faster it will get a room to maximum negative pressure. With a larger room you generally also take a larger pump.
• The size of the vacuum chamber, the smaller the chamber the faster it will vacuum. Make sure the chamber is big enough for your “favorite mixing cup”.
• If you use the pump with a fast-hardening resin or silicone, it is of course not convenient if the pump takes too long to vacuum the mixture. Valuable minutes are lost on vacuuming and the mixture already starts to harden before you have started pouring, so not convenient. In that case, use a faster vacuum pump and/or a smaller vacuum chamber.

The pump has been ordered and is ready for you. Even if you are not a techie, installing it is a piece of cake. Everything you need to get started is included in a set. Add oil, connect the hose, put on the tap, place the rubber ring with the lid, plug in the cord and use it. That's it!

Source: Eurovacuum

User tips, here they come;
You must have been mixing like a beast, I mean.. you have a vacuum chamber now, you might as well go for gold when mixing. Result? A mixture full of air bubbles! We urgently need our vacuum pump :)

1. After mixing, place your mixing cup with airy mass in the vacuum chamber. Close all taps, place the rubber ring in the edge of the vacuum chamber and close the lid. Call your husband, neighbor and children and let the spectacle begin!

2. Turn on the machine (often by simply plugging it in) and let it do its work. You will see that little to nothing happens at first. After a while, something starts to bubble and the mixture increases in volume. The mixture reaches its maximum shortly thereafter and will start to “collapse”. The larger volume changes, in a fraction of a second, back to its original volume. The vacuuming is then complete.
Letting the pump run longer will not do any harm, but generally has little benefit.

3. Using the tap, carefully let air flow into the chamber so that the vacuum is released. Do not release all the air in the chamber at once, there is a big chance that the silicone will end up on the inside of the chamber... Trust me, personal experience ;)

4. Tadaa, your first vacuum-packed mixture is a fact!! You will be a little disappointed… The mixture still contains air bubbles!?
Don't worry, this is perfectly normal. These air bubbles will (unlike the other air bubbles) quickly disappear during pouring or shortly after.

5. If you are going to be vacuuming a lot and working in a small space, we recommend using a filter !

6. The supplied oil for the pump lasts a very long time, but if you have really become a vacuum fanatic you can order new oil here :-)

Source: Eurovacuum

Tips to take with you:

• Continue vacuuming until the mixture "collapses" on its own.
• Very fluid mixtures (low viscosity) hardly increase in volume and therefore do not collapse. Simply let these mixtures simmer for a while. Simmering looks like water boiling.
• The more viscous (syrupy) a mixture is, the more it will increase in volume.
• Silicone expands in volume about 5 to 6 times before collapsing. So take a mixing cup that is large enough. A mixture of 200 ml silicone requires a cup of 1000 to 1200 ml.
• An epoxy or polyurethane generally increases less in volume than silicone. To be on the safe side, take a mixing cup in which the resin can grow about 3 times. A mixture of 200 ml resin therefore requires a cup of at least 600 ml.
• When vacuuming a mixture, the volume increases more in a narrow, tall mixing bowl than in a wide mixing bowl.
• If the cup turns out to be too small and the mixture threatens to overflow, do not panic but carefully (with the tap) let a little air into the chamber. The mixture will then sink a little. Then close the tap again and let the mixture rise again. Repeat this until the mixture “collapses”. If you prefer not to let any air into the chamber, it often helps to carefully tap the vacuum chamber on the table. The vibration of this often also has something to do with the collapsing.

Price and brand

Just like all machines or electrical devices, a price is often related to a certain quality. Do you choose an A-brand, or do you go for unknown quality, unknown warranty conditions. All this is a choice. Siliconesandmore.com chooses quality brands such as Induvac or Eurovacuüm. Are you looking for a specific type of vacuum pump or deaeration chamber, please contact us via info@siliconesandmore.com. We are happy to help you!

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Vacuümkamer Vacuümpomp