"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
Quote from: alan802 on January 15, 2015, 02:30:29 PMQuote from: mimosatexas on January 15, 2015, 02:16:41 PMGood info Alan. Have you tried cannibalizing the vacuum from your Richmond unit yet? If you want, I wouldn't mind bringing by one of my Gast pumps to test. The draw down on that gigantic exposure frame I bought is about 25 seconds and the blanket even has holes in it, so I can't imagine how you're getting such long times unless the pumps used are absolute crap or there is a significant leak. Even the harbor freight $100 oil pump was pulling vacuum on my DIY 1k unit, which has a 36x44" blanket, in less than 25 seconds.I thought about pulling the Richmond's but surprisingly the guts of the Richmond is pretty complicated for such a simple machine and I could see some headaches coming if I started pulling parts from it. When I pulled the cover on the Richmond that holds the electronics I was amazed at all it had going on. It's got a light integrator and an MH bulb, vacuum and UV safe viewing light yet it looks twice as complicated as the RPM does under the hood. I sat there for an hour trying to figure out why it needed all the other parts.If you wouldn't mind coming by and messing with it I'd for sure like to do it. Getting inside the Vastex is pretty easy and the wiring is pretty straightforward so I don't think it would be difficult to test it out. Maybe once we got inside we might find a ruptured air line or something else that could be causing the issue. I felt the same way and figured 2 decent sized vacuums would be great considering how well the Richmond performed and it was larger.contact Vastex and see what the upgraded vacuum would cost! Or they might give you pointers on how to get what ever you have in there. keep us posted!pierre
Quote from: mimosatexas on January 15, 2015, 02:16:41 PMGood info Alan. Have you tried cannibalizing the vacuum from your Richmond unit yet? If you want, I wouldn't mind bringing by one of my Gast pumps to test. The draw down on that gigantic exposure frame I bought is about 25 seconds and the blanket even has holes in it, so I can't imagine how you're getting such long times unless the pumps used are absolute crap or there is a significant leak. Even the harbor freight $100 oil pump was pulling vacuum on my DIY 1k unit, which has a 36x44" blanket, in less than 25 seconds.I thought about pulling the Richmond's but surprisingly the guts of the Richmond is pretty complicated for such a simple machine and I could see some headaches coming if I started pulling parts from it. When I pulled the cover on the Richmond that holds the electronics I was amazed at all it had going on. It's got a light integrator and an MH bulb, vacuum and UV safe viewing light yet it looks twice as complicated as the RPM does under the hood. I sat there for an hour trying to figure out why it needed all the other parts.If you wouldn't mind coming by and messing with it I'd for sure like to do it. Getting inside the Vastex is pretty easy and the wiring is pretty straightforward so I don't think it would be difficult to test it out. Maybe once we got inside we might find a ruptured air line or something else that could be causing the issue. I felt the same way and figured 2 decent sized vacuums would be great considering how well the Richmond performed and it was larger.
Good info Alan. Have you tried cannibalizing the vacuum from your Richmond unit yet? If you want, I wouldn't mind bringing by one of my Gast pumps to test. The draw down on that gigantic exposure frame I bought is about 25 seconds and the blanket even has holes in it, so I can't imagine how you're getting such long times unless the pumps used are absolute crap or there is a significant leak. Even the harbor freight $100 oil pump was pulling vacuum on my DIY 1k unit, which has a 36x44" blanket, in less than 25 seconds.
