How to Pull a Vacuum for Mosaic Pins?

ddavelarsen

ddavelarsen

Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Messages
5,179
Various times I've heard people suggest there is a pump used for bleeding auto brake lines that will work for pulling a vacuum to fill mosaic pins. Can someone tell me what this is called or what I should ask for at the auto parts store? This holiday vacation should see my first efforts making my own mosaic pins, and I'll feel much better when that's true! :cool:

Any help is greatly appreciated. I hope you're all having a good time preparing for Christmas! I spent the morning wrapping myriad gifts...finally started to get in the Spirit!

Dave
 
Dave
when I made my first pins (only pins so far) I cut them just long enough to do the job I coated all the internal bits with epoxy then
slid them back in. my handle was only about 1/2inch thick but it worked.The pattern I used everything was tight together without big gaps.

Hope this may help you until you get a pump.
 
I never used a vacuum pump but probably should have. I had a 12 inch tube and everything else to go inside was 18 inches. I coated everything with black colored epoxy and slid it thru the tube. When I had about 7-8 inches out the other side, I coated it again. It worked with no gap but wear latex gloves and work over newspaper or something, it is messy. When you do this, don't just make one pin, make at least 4 or 5. Use a slow setting epoxy, something like the 24 hour kind such as K&G or Shafting Epoxy from Golfsmith. Tape the ends well afterwards so it doesn't ooze out.

One thing I figured out through all that is that there are people out there that will make these pins and sell them to you if you don't want to put up with the mess! (I made them for just my own use, once upon a time. I don't use them anymore:) )

C Wilkins
 
Mityvac, used for brake bleeding etc. It comes with a plastic body, or the more expensive metal body.
 
I just used plain old sucking power (no jokes please;)) Just like trying to drink a thick malt through a straw. Chiro75 (I think) has a tutorial over on CKD and that is what i followed. I made 12 inches of pins at one time because that is the length the tubing came in.

Here is the link

Follow that and everything should be ok.
 
This is my plan the next time I make up some Mosaic pins. I got plastic tubing in 1/8" and 1/4", I have this small collapsible bottles that will be filled up with colored epoxy. Drill a undersize hole in the cover insert pin, attach tube pull vacuum. It sounds good on paper.:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
Thanks all. George that sounds like my plan too, though I haven't the elegance of a collapsible bottle. :) I film container or something will just have to do. I'll let you see anything that turns out okay.

Reg, if you have a pic of your pattern I'd love to see it. Getting a stable setup is much harder than it sounds like it should be. I've spent a lot of hours sitting with my set of "stuff" trying myriad combinations of pins and tubes. There seems a tough balance between leaving enough space for the color of the epoxy to matter and having it filled well enough to stay symetrical.
 
Dave, you can get a simple hand vacuum pump at most auto parts stores. They are inexpensive. Get some rubber tubing to adapt it to your steel tubing, and your set. For Gods sake don't suck the stuff by mouth. Epoxy fumes are a KNOWN carcinogen.:eek:
 
I'm guessing HF carries the Mityvac hand pumps. Many auto parts stores do, and I think they're about $20 or $30 for the plastic bodied model.
 
Thanks gents, I finally found a hand vacuum pump at Sears for $50. Got some vinyl tubing and dye, and I'm all set. I'll be making some mosaic pins this weekend, can't wait!

Thanks for all the help, Merry Christmas!

Dave
 
Wow Joe, wish I'd seen that a couple days ago. Hopefully it'll help the next human along. That looks great! Thanks for the addition.

A few days ago I went out and bought a bunch of software to run on my iMac's OS X, including AppleWorks, which includes a nice spreadsheet program (if you've been listening to all my rants you know I live in spreadsheets in my paying job).

The first thing I did with my new spreadsheet program was to record the few mosaic pin "recipes" that I have so far, along with the price for each piece - and a name.

Does anyone else name their mosaic pin patterns? It sounds silly to me but I think it'll add something to the documentation and to my descriptions here to use a name for the pins...

Okay this sounds dumb, see you 'roun'.

Dave
 
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