I’ve been seeing a few posts about vacuum pumps and whats best for what. I just wanted to share a setup I’ve that has been a powerhouse for me. I originally had this setup on a 5l spd and it worked great. I was a little concerned about stepping up to a 10l spd and how it would perform. I would have to say it works great. I bought both 2021i pumps for under 650 total shipped. I did nothing but run a few rounds of clean vacuum oil mixed with transmission fluid. Yep, transmission fluid. Transmission fluid is a detergent and has worked great to clean up my pumps. I was doing a vacuum test on the system before I load it with crude. It took under 2-3 minutes to pull under 10 micron and a few more to pull under 1 micron. I will say that managing two vacuum pumps isn’t ideal, but this is a pretty slick setup that has some pretty major flexibility and can be had for a reasonable price. I also use ultra 20 vacuum oil to achieve these numbers…
think we can get @JacobsLadder the vacuum master tag. Dude not only got his own homemade vac gauge but is the only one ive seen someone rip these pumps down to 1 micron…glad i got 3x of these pumps here…LOL
Looking good brother for sure two of these pumps is a very budget-minded way to get almost 30 CFM
The homemade Vacuum Guage is Priceless… @JacobsLadder, Thats wassup!! That is a decent setup on the cheap for real! I like the white hosing on your exhuast as well. Where do we find that? And Did you get the Inlet filters seperate? Any tranny fluid sounds like a stinky mess but hey if it cleans it out Ima have to give that a whirl. I Picked one up I hope i have good results with it and dont have to rebuild it right away… @Killa12345 Have you got all 3 yours up an running?
I wonder how a shot of seafoam in the oil would do for cleanout
That is awesome. I am always blown away by these pumps.
Where did you get the pieces for the vacuum guage?
Have you thought about using grade 19 in them?
I picked up the VACOIL 20 from a recommendation on here somewhere… Fluidx on amazon it was actually cheaper on amazon Shipped etc. Been rocking the JB blend Maybe this will work better…
Can you snap a couple photos of your tubing and connections? Just wanted to see how you ran the two into one another
That vacuum gauge is the original prototype. I have a few in the wild that are much better. I’ve been trying to find the time to do a final writeup on a build for them, but life has been sooooo busy. It’ll happen at some point though. The white hose is sump pump or pool hose from any box store. I have it plumed outside and it works great. The inlet filters are actually high vacuum valves so i can isolate the pumps form each other and the spd. Transmission fluid should smell bad. Unless you burnt up your transmission:) I think its a better solution then some of the other shadetree methods, but to each there own…
I have been meaning to finish the write up for the vacuum gauges so anyone can build one, but things have been so busy I haven’t had the time. It will happen at some point though. They come from many different sources… I used to run 19 , but got a good deal on a 5 gal bucket of ultra 20 and definetly notice a difference. The lowest i ever pulled with regular 19 was about 3-4 micron.
I’ll definitely get some more pics for you when I get back to my lab…
Rad on both accounts. I have a 55 gal drum of grade 19. Our disty guy has two Edward’s and a sogevac that uses a fuck load
I just got a really good deal on an Edwards 18 and I have another 8 cfm 25micron pump kicking around. Was gonna run them in line and see what happens 
Awesome… I downloaded the photo and zoomed in…(Brain Kicked IN) its a SMC XLH-40 high vacuum valve, XLH HIGH VACUUM VALVE*** If anyone else wanted to know… 
And that sump pump hose is perfect. I been using the Pvc hose all jankly rigged… I picked up a 24’ roll for 15$ on amazon. Perfect Fix THANKS!!
That is a very nice setup and the homemade gauge is just the cherry on top. When you did rhe tranny fluid did you jusg do 50/50. Im just curious i do alot of oil changes to keep maximum performance on all my pumps and tranny fluid is the safest sounding one ive been told, acetone, gas additive etc. i have an old edwards im giving to a friend and wanna give him rhe cleanest pump i can.
In all fairness, the numbers I quoted are dry run numbers and I don’t think you’d notice any real difference on an actual run with grade 19…
Yes, i did about a 50/50 ratio. Keep in mind that it will smoke a bit more then usual. The transmission fluid definitely doesn’t have the vacuum performance that vacuum oils do. Transmission fluid is cheap and I did 2 or three fluid changes and ran the pumps for 2-3 hours at a time. The reason i chose transmission fluid is cause its both a detergent and a lubricant. Old timers used to put transmission fluid into old engines to clean them up and figured it would at least not hurt the pumps…
how do you exhaust? how do you connect the tubing to the exhaust and what kind is it
The exhaust gets routed outside of my lab through a 1.25" bulkhead through wall flange. The tubing is connected to the pumps via a 1.25" straight to kf25 fitting. I cant remember where I got those from. The exhaust tubing itself is pool pump or bilge pump hose. You can grab the tubing at any big hardware store.
Do you think this pump is sufficient to run a 6" glass WFE? Having looked at comparisons they seem close or I am looking at it all wrong?