Vacuum connection and tipspacer material questions

[gladegp]

Hi tried searching but...

How have you made the vacuum connection to the plastic bag?
I was thinking I might use 2 small funnels inside one another, and cut them off. Put one on the inside, then plastic and maybe some sealant like silicone, and then the other one on top. Or is it a part that can be bought everywhere?

My other question is I don't have any material for tipspacers. I was thinking i might just get a normal kitchen cuttingboard and use my planer on it untill it's the thickness I want. Would this work?
Or should I just go for wood all the way? I use ash so it's quite strong.

[plywood]

normally such things can be bought anywhere they have all the vacuum setup stuff. i`d recommend you to use such connections, i used them once and they seem to be quite tight. you`ll have enought work sealing all the other leakages




the cuttingboards mostly consist out of pretty hard plastic. i`d try if epoxy bonds well to the ones you`re gonna use...it sounds like a lot of work to plan them down.
you definately could go without tipspacers - i never used them. maybe put an extra layer of glass in the tip to strengthen the construction, that`s it.

[krp8128]

I gave up on using a vacuum bag connector.

So far I've pressed 1 ski and clamped some things by just slipping my vacuum line a few inches into the bag and sealing it with butyl. I save the butyl for the next time around.

[shralpster]

krp8128, are you able to reuse your vacuum bag each time if you seal in the vacuum line? Or are you just making a new bag each press?

[gladegp]

normally such things can be bought anywhere they have all the vacuum setup stuff.

That's just the thing, it's not that easy to find around here. If I could have gone into a store and bought one I would have :P

you definately could go without tipspacers - i never used them. maybe put an extra layer of glass in the tip to strengthen the construction, that`s it.

OK I think I'll just try this until I can get some proper material

Thanks

[krp8128]

krp8128, are you able to reuse your vacuum bag each time if you seal in the vacuum line? Or are you just making a new bag each press?

I'm actually not using a bag, I use a 4 mil plastic sheet that seals to the top surface of my mold. Unfortunately, the butyl tape is far too sticky to re-use the bag, when I try to remove everything the plastic stretches.

[gladegp]

The cutting boards I have are actually really flexible. They're like 8-9 mm thick now and I can easily flex them by hand. If I get them down to 3 mm they'll be sweet. But I don't know if they'll bond.

Anyone got any other tips for the connection? This must have been done tons of times by people here at skibuilders

[tonyt]

Anyone got any other tips for the connection? This must have been done tons of times by people here at skibuilders

I use mag wheel air filler valves and I am pretty certain that is what is shown in plywoods picture. The only thing that you have to do to them is take out the valve with a pair of needlenose plyers and then file a groove across the inside so that the valve itself doesn't vacuum onto your piece. The mag wheel filler valves separate into two parts with rubber gaskets and bolt together sandwiching the plastic for the vacuum bag. It might help to double up the plastic in the area of the valve but it probably is not necessary. The valves are available at any NAPA or Auto parts store for about $4.00. The vacuum line just slips over the end of the valve. Hope that helps.

Tony