{"id":1075,"date":"2016-11-04T20:20:41","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T03:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/?p=1075"},"modified":"2016-11-14T21:19:45","modified_gmt":"2016-11-15T05:19:45","slug":"cheap-vacuum-pump-for-home-physics-experiments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/cheap-vacuum-pump-for-home-physics-experiments\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheap vacuum pump for home physics experiments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As documented earlier, I <a href=\"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/?p=738\">made one of those CRT-in-a-winebottle things<\/a>. I used a cheap 2-stage mechanical vacuum pump for it. Well, it was so good that my boss wanted to use it as a science demo at some dinners he gives, so it&#8217;s been permanently transferred to work. So I need a new pump, and a new chamber!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WkK79Os9gZI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I ordered another of the same cheapo pumps, but this time I got a more precise vacuum gauge too. As it turned out, this pump, which was rated to ~2 microns, only got down to 750 microns! Not good enough for 1800s physics experiments. So I found\u00a0these <a href=\"http:\/\/viot.us\/showproduct.php?model=pumps&amp;service=product\">VIOT pumps. <\/a>They look great and just have that reputable feel. My VPD5 is in the mail, rated to 15 microns. We shall see! UPDATE: Oh yeah, VPD5 is EPIC! It got down to 2 microns on my gauge. Very nice.<\/p>\n<p>For a chamber, I thought I&#8217;d try a peanut butter jar (see video). I used a hole saw to cut into it and mounted a NPT\/quick-disconnect coupler to it with a rubber washer. I actually have no idea if the quick-disconnect things can hold any kind of vacuum (I sort of doubt it) but I&#8217;ll let you know. I think compression fittings will be much more suitable for these mid-vacuum levels. Not quite swagelock but whatever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As documented earlier, I made one of those CRT-in-a-winebottle things. I used a cheap 2-stage mechanical vacuum pump for it. Well, it was so good that my boss wanted to use it as a science demo at some dinners he gives, so it&#8217;s been permanently transferred to work. So I need a new pump, and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/cheap-vacuum-pump-for-home-physics-experiments\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Cheap vacuum pump for home physics experiments<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics-and-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1078,"href":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}