Vacuum Level

I bought some grease should be in by todayto fix teh leak, Im curious to know if my system is a 2 Liter setup where my Vacuum Pressure should be at?

Where does your pump blank off?
If your empty system doesnā€™t hit the same spot, itā€™s leaking. Period.

2 Likes

What do you mean? Is your boiling flask 2 liters? Then its 2 L

1 Like

For me, first pass under 50 micron after heads. If I am not at 12 micron when I start to switch to mains, I fucked up. 7 to 9 micron is a happy spot for me all the way through mains. No leaks and better starting material than most. 5L full bore, dual cold trap system with a 7.5 cfm roughing pump and a 21.5 cfm mains pump.

5 Likes

I double checked for leaks turns out it wasnt a leak my vacuum is consistently going down, I attached my Vacuum reader directly to my vacuum pump, it was about 170 microns and still going down by increments of 5 I got down to about 150 microns rebooked my system back up it went down to about 1200 microns and itā€™s still going down, I figure itā€™s my vacuum pump that might need rebuilding I changed the oil cleaned it up. You think it needs rebuilding or itā€™s fine to perform my next run got about 600ml of crude Iā€™m going to run?

Itā€™s taking way to long to go all the way down anyone encountered this before?

it may need a rebuild but have you tried flushing it at all? flushing the fluid is usually the first step a repair shop will make to try and bring the microns down

1 Like

Yeah I completely flushed it out let it run for about 30 minutes, put brand new oil back in there. Went down to about 1100 microns still going down by increments of 5. You think it needs a rebuild?

depending on where you are at, get some kind of flushing fluid and letting the pump run and try to blank off like you are doing for 20-30 mins and do continual flushes of filling the pump w oil, changing it and refilling/flushing and if you repeat 2-3 times and there is no drop in microns you have other issues afoot.

1 Like

I recently replaced aworn out shaftseal which fixed the major oil leak problems, inward after I was able to get it down to very low vacuum after that roughly 30 microns and counting. I guess Iā€™ll try the flushing, what agents would be recommended for flushing anyone have an idea ?

1 Like

Hereā€™s what we use to flush. just a cheaper oil so you arenā€™t throwing out good oil in the flush.

Also, the type of pump you have will determine the labor into the rebuild. From what iā€™ve heard (only second hand) the sogevac for ex is a pain in the ass to rebuild

@Soxhlet recomends kerosine
@anon42519203 recomends ethanol
I personaly recomend all off the above :grin:

3 Likes

If you contact the company they refer you to for proper directions its way cheaper

1 Like

You are the real V.I.P my friend thank you, Iā€™m going to grab a gallon of that from USA labs today and see what I can do. Hopefully this works so I dont have to rebuild it shouldnt be a problem rebuilding, these pumps are really simple to assemble and disassemble Iā€™ve done it before multiple times on different pumps just to see how complex but this fix would surely be a breeze. Iā€™ll give you guys an update on what happens!

1 Like

you talking rebuild or FF?

If rebuild, that would be awesome. Would love to buy a junk vacuum pump and get to rebuild it to figure it out

1 Like

No the flushing fluid. You can always find cheap pumps that are in good condition on ebay if your gonna rebuild i would suggest @larrythepump guy on ig

2 Likes

does he sell rebuild kits too (for internal components)? thank you :pray: need a good side project

1 Like

I dont know you can find those pretty easy. Pro vac has them and online you can find them

1 Like

question I fielded on the way out the door last nightā€¦

What does it mean when the vac gauge reads zero microns?

That your pump is probably sufficient, & your gauge is not. :thinking:

Gauge in question was a bullseye, pump was 21cfm supervac on a 2l SPD. previous gauge (borrowed) had suggested we were bottoming out around 35-40um.

1 Like

Those rebuild kits you can get for roughly 200$ I can send you a link uif youd like, they are fairly easy to rebuild just some gaskets and springs pretty much.