Having looked long and hard for a jar sealer, I finally found and ordered one, and it is backordered indefinitely, so I tried to find another solution. For some reason people call the water displacement method vacuum sealing.
People are stupid.
If you are unfamiliar with it, you put most of a ziploc bag underwater and have the water squeeze out much of the air. They said that it is better than nothing and they are right, but it is not vacuum sealing, and I thought of it the first time I wanted to get most of the air out of a bag.
Another guy put water in the bag, mostly sealed it, squeezed it upside-down, and sealed it when the last of the water ran out.
I do not know if that is better or worse for foods that you do not mind getting wet, but a channel called Cheerful Craft showed how to turn a syringe and two check valves into a vacuum pump.
The poster says to buy a syringe from a pharmacy.
CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens do not carry syringes.
They say to buy check valves from a pet store. The big pet store in-town does not carry check valves.
I can use Harbor Freight's brake bleeder, but what about the check valve? Well, they have an even shorter video showing a different way to make a pump with built-in check valves:
- A big syringe with needle
- Hypodermic adapter
- Plastic tubing
- Retractible ballpoint pen
- Long and skinny balloon
- Ball bearing
- Drill with a small bit
- Wire cutters
- Hot glue gun
- Tape
- Drill a hole in the side of the syringe tip
- Cut off a 1/2" piece of balloon
- Slide the balloon segment over the hole you just drilled.
- Tape the fat side of the balloon to the syringe
- Remove the spring from the pen and cut a 1/4" piece
- Drop the ball bearing into the tip adapter
- Drop the piece of spring over the ball bearing.
- Insert the needle adapter over the syringe tip, attach to the tube, stab the bag, apply tape, extract air, push down the tape, and retract the needle.
Amazon says they can have this to Mom's house tomorrow. Really? Three and a half hours from Phoenix? This is also the cheapest one this size:
500ml Syringe with 31.5in Plastic Tubing Hose
Here is a $5 10-pack of assorted dispensing needles
Great. Vacuum-sealing bags, but I wanted to seal jars! Do we just drill tiny holes in the lid and apply tape? The same person showed how!
Seriously?! A third variation?!
- Syringe
- IV drip with roller clamp
- Jar with lid
- Ball bearing
They get most of what they need from the IV drip. I cannot find many on Amazon, mostly just hydration powders because apparently the cool kids shoot Gatorade, they don't drink it.
This one is $7 and ships in 3 days. However, it would repressurize if you disconnect the drip.
He has at least one more video showing a different way to make a check valve and other people have different methods, like the late King of Random, who also made a pump.
I was thinking that I would modify a bike pump, drill a small hole, and use a ball needle and packaging tape, but there must be way to make your own jar sealer!
You could make a vacuum chamber out of plastic pipe just bigger than the mason jar. Set the lid on the jar, but don't screw on the ring [at least all of the way]. Close the chamber, extract the air, and the jar lid will act like a check valve. Let the air back in the chamber, remove the lid, and tighten the lid on the jar.
I looked at twenty different videos and pages and everyone said to use the jar attachment. I started thinking about how easy it must be to make my own and I finally found plans!
- Duct tape
- 28oz can
- 10" inner tube
- Harbor Freight transfer pump
- Slime tubeless tire valves from AutoZone. AutoZone sells them?!
- A 2.75" length of 3" PVC pipe
- Drill a hole in the bottom of the can just barely big enough for the tire valve
- Soap the valve and push it through the hole until it snaps. Nobody said we needed soap!
- Cut a 6" slice of the inner tube
- Drop the "Chunk o' pipe" in the can
- "Stretch like heck to get one end of the inner tube 2.5" over the open end of the can"
- It's tight, don't use lube, just be gentle
- Fold the open end of the inner tube over itself and leave a 3/4" ring around the bottom
- Secure the inner tube with duct tape
- Screw the lid most of the way, lubricate the gasket (silicone?), slide it onto the jar, attach the pump, and pull vacuum.
- Release the pressure and remove the adapter
There is no need to make your own hand-operated vacuum pump or modify a bike pump if you can use a transfer pump from Harbor Freight. I do not know what difference it makes for extracting air, but the brake bleeder is brass, which contains lead.