Vacuum is something most people learn about as children, when they’re first tasked with chores around the home. The humble vacuum cleaner is a useful home appliance and a great way to lose an eye as an inquisitive child. When it comes to common workshop tasks though, they can be a bit of a let down. When you need to pull some serious vacuum, you might wanna turn to something a little more serious – like this converted air compressor.
The build starts with a cheap off-the-shelf tyre inflator. These can be had for under $20 from the right places. They’re prone to overheating if used at too high a duty cycle, but with care they can last just long enough to be useful. The hack consists of fitting a hose barb connection over the intake of the pump, to allow air to be sucked out of whatever you’re trying to pull vacuum on. This is achieved with some hardware store parts and a healthy dose of JB-Weld. It’s then a simple matter of removing the valve adapter on the tyre inflator’s outlet so it can flow freely.
You might also consider adding a check valve, but overall this remains a cheap and easy way to get an electric vacuum pump for your workshop up and running. If that’s not quite your jam, you can always go down the handpump route instead.
Thank goodness Hackaday doesn’t write about things that really suck! Oh, wait a minute ….
You might also consider putting in a filter of some sort, lest ye suck some grit and sand into your pump and destroy it.
Depending on how ghetto you wanna go, a fuel filter for old carbureted cars could work.
Lose an eye, really?
If you look down the barrel and somebody turns on the vacuum it sucks your eye out. It works in cartoons…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_bazooka
Well, there goes my weekend.
When I first met her, my wife had a couple of 12 volt tire compressors, one in her car, the other in her garage.
Her dad had given them to her several years before.
When I tried to use them, the pistons had rusted to the cylinders.
I’ve always used old compressors from Refrigerators and Freezers.
I think he could have just unscrewed the hose from the cylinder head (rather than cutting it).