Make a Vacuum Pump from a Bike Pump
 

My brother asks for Domino's every Friday. Mom used to buy me Little Caesar's although she denied any relationship between the quality of the pizza and how much she liked each son. However, I started buying myself stuffed crust pizza and never went back. When they stopped selling it I stopped buying completely. It was back for a little while and then they killed it again.

Now they have stuffed bread. Yay.

I wasn't too worried about dinner tonight. I still haven't worked on my car today, but at least I finally went to Walmart for something that I needed [and happened to remember something else, but not Mom's popcorn, so I went back, and when I returned to my car I saw that she also wanted cherries, so I went in for the third time].

However, I realized that Mom still has not air fried with her $250 air fryer, so I started looking into it. I only looked at one recipe, but it called for marinating.

Ain't nobody got time for that!

I know of two ways of accelerating marinating: Pressure-cooking and vacuum-sealing. My pressure cooker no longer holds pressure.

I should look into that!

It was messy, though. This didn't happen, but it was inevitable!
https://i.imgur.com/gLNEaoZ.jpg

I have long wanted a vacuum pump and chamber for... stuff. [Can you form concrete in a vacuum? Can you mix concrete without stirring in a vacuum? If I put my heater core and water in a large enough chamber, will it help me find leaks?] I am sure that you can use a Harbor Freight vacuum pump for food, but I cannot find anything.

Is it food safe? Since it is extracting air I am unconcerned.

Why not use a commercial vacuum sealer?

Walmart has three in-stock that look like laminators, which are not ideal according to what I read, and they have a $25 one that needs to charge for 24 hours before use.

That doesn't work either!

I found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yRYtyuhkkAHe installed a Schrader valve in a jar lid, removed the stem, and replaced it with a BB.

Can you just buy one BB?! I don't need two!

That doesn't seem great. I can wash the Schrader valve and BB, but is that really food safe? Do I install a valve in the lid for each jar from which I want to pull vacuum?

That is not a good solution, but I ran across that idea from the comments section for this: "The Alvin" Vacuum SealerHFQPDB.com doesn't show a coupon, so here is the current 20% off deal. With the coupon it would be $20.
Not only can I not find a jar sealer nearby, I can hardly find one on-line! Only FoodSaver has it in-stock, but their add to cart button doesn't add to my cart. Not on Brave, Chrome, Internet Explorerk Opera or Vivaldi. I tried on my laptop, desktop, and phone, I allowed cookies and created an account. It wasn't until I used Mom's iPad that I was able to add it to my cart, but I couldn't buy, although it showed up in my cart on my phone, so I purchased there.
It went from $10 plus $8.50 shipping to $16.21 taxed. It won't be here for a week. The only reason that I went ahead is because of how difficult it is to find them. Maybe you could buy 5 and sell them on eBay!

So, if you want a vacuum pump\sealer for projects, here are a couple of ways to modify one cheaply and easily!

Don't waist your time with vacuum concrete.
It offered no advantage over concrete made with de-gassed water as far as I could tell.
I use a harbor freight vacuum pump.

I have never heard of concrete made with de-gassed water!

My theory is that the vacuum would equally distribute the water throughout the concrete without mixing. Would that take less time? Probably not, but if you need to de-gas water...

I read a study about concrete cured in an x ray CT chromatography machine.
They used city water from a hose for one test and the other test the tap water was brought to a boil, sealed and allowed to cool.
The boiled and de gassed water made much smaller, more numerous air pockets than the city water out of the tap.

You still have to mix it under a vacuum.

Here's a kindred soul: The Story of Ulillillia. At [timestamp 1:10] he shows how to lose weight eating pizza.

There's an anti-aircrete resistance?

I'd rather try to use a vacuum cleaner as a vacuum pump

According to this, that wouldn't work.

Dunn-Wright Volks-Aire air compressor. It should draw 120 psi of vacuum if you run it that way. That's maybe 8.2 Bars at 1200cfm.
Volks-Aire Air Compressor

You can't get 120 psi of vacuum.
There's only about 14.7psi of air pressure at sea level.

Shoulda been two 'maybes'. :(

I just inverted the positive numbers. If it's about draw-down rather than throughput it's probably less, or is there even such a thing with a vacuum? Maybe it would be 14.7/8.2 or 0.557Bar? Half atmospheric?

Could be 120 MICRONS vacuum, about 14.6999 psi negative

At one time I wanted a Volks-Aire compressor mounted on the transaxle of a tricycle 'shop truck'. Open the tap to make it drivable with an in-line two.

Else a double conversion that had a four-cylinder compressor driven by a windmill.

Vacuum-bagged basalt composites. :thumbup:

edit: Can you move air from a vacuum flask/tank to a compressed air flask/bottle/tank to double dip on the energy expended? This could have implications for home power.

Instead of opening the time and wasting compressed air, makes me wonder if it would be worth resorting to the compressing cylinders as somewhat of a supercharger. At least one guy did a similar approach in a Ducati motorcycle with the L2 engine, I just don't remember if the upper or the lower cylinder acted as a supercharger. On a sidenote, another interesting experience could be resorting to the compressed air to provide some sort of air conditioning similar to what is done on airliners with their air-cycling machine powered with bled air from one of the compressors of a turbofan or turboprop.

I was just wanting to post this in the Peak Econobox thread about the Scuderi Cycle engine.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ne_-_Cycle.gif
It had separated compression and power cylinders with a reservoir in between. Easy Peasy gas/compressed air hybrid. But they spun their wheels in the development process trying to make a proprietary inline four. The same thing that killed Elio. :(

Anyways, if they'd done the development work on an air-cooled boxer four....

I must confess I don't have the same enthusiasm as you do for the Scuderi cycle, but it would be nice to see it reaching the market one way or another. Well, considering so many ultralight and light sports aircraft are fitted with engines based on the Volkswagen design, it could've been a good starting point for the development of a proprietary Scuderi engine, even though an inline might be easier to fit into most of the modern cars than a boxer is.

If I had money to burn, I'd do a development cycle or two (maybe different displacement compression and power cylinder displacements, dual port head with an air bottle where the carb used to be, port injection, etc.) in secret and then see how cheap a license would be.

Cut deal with J-Bugs or EMPI, and step three: Profit.

Trying to get the Atkinson effect?

Mom keeps asking me what I am doing and why.

Is that normal? Is everyone else constantly explaining themselves? She knows that I will tell the story when it fails spectacularly--and she will not want to listen.

Anyway, I usually tell her "Science woman!"

You would think that she would learn to stop asking! :)

DIY vacuum sealing
 

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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7MpwkXS_MQ

1. A big syringe with needle
2. Hypodermic adapter
3. Plastic tubing
4. Retractible ballpoint pen
5. Long and skinny balloon
6. Ball bearing
7. Drill with a small bit
8. Wire cutters
9. Hot glue gun
10. Tape

1. Drill a hole in the side of the syringe tip
2. Cut off a 1/2" piece of balloon
3. Slide the balloon segment over the hole you just drilled.
4. Tape the fat side of the balloon to the syringe
5. Remove the spring from the pen and cut a 1/4" piece
6. Drop the ball bearing into the tip adapter
7. Drop the piece of spring over the ball bearing.
8. 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!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UICU1DmRVCASeriously?! A third variation?!

1. Syringe
2. IV drip with roller clamp
3. Jar with lid
4. 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!

1. Duct tape
2. 28oz can
3. 10" inner tube
4. Harbor Freight transfer pump
5. Slime tubeless tire valves from AutoZone. AutoZone sells them?!
6. A 2.75" length of 3" PVC pipe

1. Drill a hole in the bottom of the can just barely big enough for the tire valve
2. Soap the valve and push it through the hole until it snaps. Nobody said we needed soap! :)
3. Cut a 6" slice of the inner tube
4. Drop the "Chunk o' pipe" in the can
5. "Stretch like heck to get one end of the inner tube 2.5" over the open end of the can"
6. It's tight, don't use lube, just be gentle
7. Fold the open end of the inner tube over itself and leave a 3/4" ring around the bottom
8. Secure the inner tube with duct tape
9. Screw the lid most of the way, lubricate the gasket (silicone?), slide it onto the jar, attach the pump, and pull vacuum.
10. Release the pressure and remove the adapter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEg_MtIePfs

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.

Haven't watched the videos (laundry), but I'm wondering.... Any bicycle pump has a check valve. What happens if you just revere that. Pull up to suck.

Schrader valves are one-way!

WikiHow says that you can just reverse part of the bike pump. Are they oversimplifying? Everyone else has a few more steps!

You know, there is a cheaper way. Have you ever inflated a mattress, pool toy, etc., without a pump? Here! Watch this awkward video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANVI04QmthESomeone pointed out that foot pumps for air mattresses are often reversible. This one is $12.21, but Harbor Freight's transfer pump is $7, although here is a coupon for $3 off.

So just run the Schrader valve backwards....

Why are we doing this vacuum exercise anyways unless it is the instant marinade technique.

Most horse supply places have up to 100Cc syringes that you can buy but without a needle
Or make a plastic pipe pool soaker, but you'll be limited to low vacuum