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Step 4Prepare the intake for the vacuum fitting
To prepare the top of the cylinder for the hose barb, I built a little wall around the intake holes using J.B. Weld high-temperature metal-filled epoxy. (Available at any hardware store for a few dollars; I used less than a dollar's worth.)
First I prepared the surface, swabbing it with alcohol on cotton swabs to remove any dirt and especially oils.
As you can see in the picture, the J.B. Weld was a bit runny at first, and almost flowed over a couple of the holes. Oops. I should have waited until it set up somewhat, to a more putty-like consistency. I pushed it back from the holes with a cotton swab a couple of times. Once it was thick enough to stay where I put it, I shaped it into a circular wall that the hose barb flange could sit on.
Meantime, I mixed up a little more J.B. Weld, so that it would thicken a little, too, in preparation for gluing the hose barb on.
This was the time-consuming part---waiting about hour or so for J.B. Weld to thicken. I had other things to do, though, so I only spent about 20 minutes actually working on this project. If you're in a big hurry, you could probably use faster-setting epoxy, but I like J.B. Weld because it's fairly good at conducting heat. (I didn't want to insulate the top of the cylinder too much. That probably doesn't matter, because a pump used for vacuum doesn't heat up as much as one used for compression---highly compressed air gets very hot---so you might try 30-minute epoxy instead.)
First I prepared the surface, swabbing it with alcohol on cotton swabs to remove any dirt and especially oils.
As you can see in the picture, the J.B. Weld was a bit runny at first, and almost flowed over a couple of the holes. Oops. I should have waited until it set up somewhat, to a more putty-like consistency. I pushed it back from the holes with a cotton swab a couple of times. Once it was thick enough to stay where I put it, I shaped it into a circular wall that the hose barb flange could sit on.
Meantime, I mixed up a little more J.B. Weld, so that it would thicken a little, too, in preparation for gluing the hose barb on.
This was the time-consuming part---waiting about hour or so for J.B. Weld to thicken. I had other things to do, though, so I only spent about 20 minutes actually working on this project. If you're in a big hurry, you could probably use faster-setting epoxy, but I like J.B. Weld because it's fairly good at conducting heat. (I didn't want to insulate the top of the cylinder too much. That probably doesn't matter, because a pump used for vacuum doesn't heat up as much as one used for compression---highly compressed air gets very hot---so you might try 30-minute epoxy instead.)
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