Reddit reviews American Educational Hand Operated Vacuum Pump
We found 2 Reddit comments about American Educational Hand Operated Vacuum Pump. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Hand vacuum pumpPumping rate is 15ml per strokeDisplace up to 725 ml of airFitted with a valve to release the vacuum without disconnecting the pumpVinyl Tube
Depends on how much vacuum you want. You can suck a significant amount of air out of a bottle with your mouth by sealing your lips over the mouth.
With a small handheld vacuum pump you can create even more.
With a home food sealing machine, you can create about the best vacuum you're going to get without a much more expensive pump. Interestingly enough, the "vacuum" these machines produce is very near the atmospheric pressure on Mars.
Vacuum is dangerous if you put anything living into it, or if you try to draw a vacuum on some container that doesn't have the structural integrity to hold it, it will implode.
Just a vacuum. My chamber is aluminum and is a bit more expensive setup than a food dehydrator, but I bet a small chamber could be printed, which would bring the cost down. Another substantial cost is the pump itself. It MIGHT be possible to do this with a hand operated vacuum pump if most of the void space could be elliminated within the chamber, maybe with rice or a desiccant. Basically you want most of the air out when you start so you don't have to pump much.
In summary, with a printed vacuum chamber (would need to be well engineered to prevent implosion which would not be fun) and a hand pump this could actually be quite a bit cheaper than alternative methods. It's definitely safer for your spool and oven, lol!
Oh, and an interesting thing about the desiccant: It gets quite warm when it's adsorbing moisture, but not nearly warm enough to melt any 3d printer filament that I'm aware of. This warmth should make the filament dry out even faster. It also will keep the pressure in the chamber lower since it will adsorb water vapor surprisingly quickly.
Now if I can get an analytical balance we'll be in business!