Money Money money.
I need to spend some..
Been doing a lot of thinking and testing..
Tried to make my own pot lid.. could only pull down to 500 mbar. If I continue to experiment, I could potentially get somthing that works but it will cost a few hundred quid in materials and potentially weeks of time wasted, to end up with something which may or may not do the job..
The conclusion Ive come to is that Im not an expert, and Im better off spending money on some proper equipment which is garanteed to work perfectly first time.
So, Im planning to purchase one of these-
http://island-scientific.co.uk/vacuumfilling.aspxA Chamber with a 17L capacity, perspex lid and a "pouring arm" which can rotate and move in and out of the chamber. I can pour the resin into a custom designed cup and then move it along a line of molds in the chamber.
Total cost- £1000
Which is an eye watering ammount of money, but its garanteed to work, requires no mechanisms or electronics, and has a large capacity which will happily take virtually any size molds.
On top of this, I then need a vacuum pump which can empty the chamber in a reasonable ammount of time.
My current pump is 5.3CFM, and gets my 10L pot empty in just over a minute, however I know the pot leaks like crazy, so Im going to test the current pump on the new pot when it arrives.
The pump is rated for a final vacuum of 25microns, but I only actually need 100 microns to cast with, so Im hoping as the vacuum pot is totally sealed, it should pump down to a workable pressure inside the resins curing time.
If the current pump cant reduce the pressure quick enough, I will have to purchase a new pump.. but can shop around so hopefully will not cost to much.
The upside of spending all this money is that my chamber will have a built in mechanical casting arm, and will definatly hold a perfect vacuum!
AH