vaccum chamber

M

magnum .44

Joined
Jun 12, 1999
Messages
1,110
i'm thinking of making a vaccum chamber for finishing, for a dust free finish, but let air in so it dries, after the innitial vaccuming of dust from the chamber. just big enough for an entire knife, or wood sheath. have any of you ever made one?
 
44 Mag..

Whats the reason you want a dust free area?
Are you talking for powder coating or something a long that line?

Not sure I understand what you need it for!

Eric..

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Eric E. Noeldechen
On/Scene Tactical
http://www.mnsi.net/~nbtnoel

 
i need it becuase all kinds of crazy crap get into the liquid finished, and i hate sanding them out, plus i don't like to loose a day becuase i'm waiting for a finish to dry, and don't want to get grinding dust in it.
 
Magnum, I know how you feel about things getting in your finish! I don't understand the need for a vacuum chamber though. If you mean using a vacuum cleaner to remove the dust from a small cabinet, you could just make a small wooden cabinet with glued joints and a filter in one side. Then have a fitting to attach the vacuum cleaner to remove the dust and draw fresh air across the finished item to help speed drying time.

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"Always think of your fellow knife makers as partners in the search for the perfect blade, not as people trying to compete with you and your work!"
 
When you say a vacuum chamber you don't mean one like you use to stabilize wood do you? The kind where you suck all the air out?
Or do you just want something to keep your stuff clean while the finish dries.If so You might try making a box whatever size you need out of plywood. You could even put shelves in it to hold multiple things.Then cut a vent in one end and put a filter for a shop vac over it. Then in the other end put a vent and a small fan in to blow air out of the box like an exhaust fan. That would circulate clean air through to help your work dry.Just make sure all the joints are tight, maybe even seal them with a caulking gun. Let us know what you come up with. I might be interested in trying this too because I can't just sit my stuff out in the shop or the garage and trust everyone to leave it alone. I left a toolbox in the garage to dry that I had painted for shop class once, my mom ran it over when she got home.

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Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
 
You know I just can't figure out how you expect to get the dust out by drawing a vacuum in a cabinet. If you draw a vacuum the dust in the cabinet will just settle until fresh air is reintroduced and will become airborne again.

The only way to control dust in this sort of enviroment is to build a box that is airtight with some sort of door to load the box then cut a hole in one end of the box and cover it with a high efficiency paper filter. This rig will filter the incoming air to prevent new dust entering the cabinet while providing a supply of dust free air to dry the item inside. The vacuum draw need not be very powerful to make this system work.

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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com

 
george, that's exactly what i'm trying to do, sorry i should have explained better. creat a vaccum, then introduce dust free air. thanks for explaining that better than i did.
 
magnum.44

If you can find one, and old bench top sand blast cabinet should be just about perfect. You would have a door for loading the workpiece into the cabinet, sealed internal gloves for handling the workpiece after its all sealed up., and entry/exit ports for air. You could make a fitting on the exit hole to take the hose from a shop-vac and cut the air entry hole larger with a hole saw. Then duct tape a couple coffee filters over the entry hole, or a flattened out dust mask to filter the incoming air. Really if you take a close look at a sand blast cabinet, you could build the same thing out of 1/4" plywood. Whaddaya think?

GaryB

[This message has been edited by GARY B (edited 27 November 1999).]
 
sounds good, nut i think i'll make one from ethier acrylic, or lucite. my brother likes making stuff from plastic, so i'll have him make me one, and i'll put the attachments on it.
 
This may sound like a dumb comment, but why not just do your finishing somewhere else instead of bothering with a vaccum chamber or a filtered box? A knife is not a big item and I usually just spread newspapers on the kitchen table when I am coating one and need a dust-free place for a few minutes. The knife is then put in a closet dry. A very low-tech way to avoid dust.....
 
i'm trying to avoid all dusts, a vaccum chamber, and filter would prevent all dusts. especially when it's neccesary to use a pour on finish, where you can't sand dust particles out, after the finish.
 
If you are considering building a "clean box" using lucite or some transparent material, consider hunting around some of the computer/electronics surplus stores for a "printer muffler". They were used to cut the noise from dot matrix printers. They frequently have clear plastic tops that hinge up and grilles for ventilation. There are holes for the paper and cables that are easilly plugged, leaving a small one for an outlet. Those same stores are likely to have fans and filters to match the grille. A lot of these are just being thrown out with the old computer systems so they should be inexpensive.
 
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