a little tip. a lot of front impacts destroy the engine and aircon radiator, but leave the pump and cables intact, so most you find at scrapyards are typically fine.

a surplus fan or drill motor can be modified with a simple drive belt recovered from a broken vacuum cleaner and the resulting setup is fully adjustable as well as the motor being replaceable should it fail in use.

you may however need to find the wiring diagram for the compressor as some have a magnetic clutch to engage the drive..

http://www.instructables.com/id/E791HNXF23Z39P6/

(BTW, for bagging and veneering it’s usually easy to avoid running the pump for more than a few minutes at once. Suck most of the air out of the bag with a vacuum cleaner—or by mouth if you’re not using nasty resins—and then connect the high vacuum. (If you have a really big reservoir, empty it beforehand in a few goes, rather than all at once at the start of bagging.)

If your pump’s a cheapie, you shouldn’t run it continuously for more than a few minutes at a time. You’ll also need a car charger or some similarly powerful 12V power supply to run it. (Maybe an ATX PC power supply converted to a benchtop power supply.)

If you have a gallon jug reservoir and a vacuum switch, so that it just cycles on for a little while now and then, you can leave it “on” (intermittently) overnight. (That’s the advantage over the bike pump.) That can be useful for bagging seriously bent laminates with slow-drying glues, or composites with slow-setting resins.)

(People use a similar but smaller and slower pump for laminating skateboard decks.)

The conversion is dead easy. Check it out:
http://www.instructables.com/id/EA58LR1F35J1I9N/

That thing requires you to have an air compressor.. Also, you’re making the mistake of believing the advertising copy from harbor freight. ;) If it actually works and you already have a big compressor (4+ CFM) then it would be pretty good.

The nice part of this hack is that the parts are available for free at least once a week on a streetcorner near you.

Any suggestions on how to drain the fridge once you get it? Or is everyone just dumping the refrigerent into the air?

you could buy this for 9.99

it has no moving parts and can pull 28.3″ of mercury at sea level

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=92475

wow…I somehow missed #6′s post… but thanks for making me look for it – reading that made my day :p who the hell would use a vacuum pump as floor vac…

well, ignorance is bliss… and then you may ask: “what’s bliss?” :P

remember the diy surfboard from a while ago? it would be used for something like that, unless my memory is wrong, it was either homemade plywood or carbon fiber.

or watch the mythbusters episode where they tried to make the ultralight aircraft that looked like a jetpack. they used bags to create the pressure needed (through a vacuum) to make the carbon fiber form correctly.

try to actually know what you’re talking about before you make yourself look more like a fucking idiot steve and mack. i have not read of one positive comment from you steve, and i read a very revealing comment from yourself mentioning a frisky dog and a basement. don’t come to this site if you hate it, we won’t miss you. at all. seriously, die in a fire.