Vacuum Pump Questions?

[rbrtsylve]

Hello
I grew up on a dairy farm and believe it or not we used vacuum pumps to milk the cows. I have a chance to get two 5 hp pumps I could use on a cnc. At 15" these pumps are rated at 70 cfm but the pumps without regulators are capable of pulling upwards of 23" of vacuum. I am not sure what the cfm ratings would be at those levels. These pumps are a rotary vane style pump with the ability to run with 3,5 or 7.5 hp motors to increase the cfm's. I can get these two pumps with the 5 hp motors for less than the cost of buying two Fein's. Will this system work or have I fell of my rocker?

My primary needs are panel processing in a cabinet shop producing 2-4 kitchens per month.

thanks
Robert

[cwshop]

I grew up in a family with dairy farms on both sides of my family. When I was looking to setup vacuum on my machine, I question them about the possibility. One had an old rotary vane pump in pieces, that was availiable for free. I cleaned it up and put it back together. Hooked a 2 HP motor to it that I had in back room. It pulls 20" of vacuum with my homemade vacuum regulator. It has covered all my needs for vacuum so far.

P.S Put a good muffler on the exhaust of the Pump.

by TFix

[gene]

Robert ,
I have a 7.5 roots blower i got from shopbot and it pulls about 15" of vac.
Talmadge
What type of muffler did you put on yours?

[cwshop]

When I set the Vacuum pump up I put in the back room(seperate from my shop area) with my air compressor and dust blower. From experience around dairy farms. I knew vacuum pumps made lots of noise. I exhausted the pump through the outside of the back room with a straight pipe. When I first started it up, it made a log truck without a muffler sound like a sewing machine! He Haw. Checked with my cousin and he had a muffler off of a 1066 International farm tractor he thought would work. Quietened it down, but still glad its on outside of building.

by TFix