Vacuum Generator??

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Has anyone ever used a Vacuum Generator from Gast or a similar product?

https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/80059835

I am just intrigued by the design and thought that for some producers this might be the most cost effective way to go.

Thoughts??

[RileySugarbush]

I have a venturi generator for vacuum bagging carbon fiber. It pulls a good vacuum but would not keep up with the high flow rates needed for sap

[maple flats]

Unless I'm very confused, it is really a vacuum pump, it pumps air from in a closed system (your tubing system) to the atmosphere. Many on here use and like Gast pumps, you just need to determine what size you need. The old school used to be 1 CFM/100 taps, but more recently it has been 1 CFM/50 taps. Then you need to read the specs carefully, the 17 CFM it shows in the listing my well be 17 cfm at zero vacuum, or it might be 17 cfm at 15" vacuum (huge difference), or it might be at some other reference point. Then calculate what the max. number of taps you might have on the system. If it approaches anything over 50 taps/cfm, you will need to be very proactive in fixing leaks, even at under 50/cfm you can't just let leaks go unfixed, but it does give you a little lee way.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

I am surprised I had never thought about this before. I have used a similar concept to pull oil out of boat engines. Very intrigued.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

I dod some more digging and found the specs to them, doesn't look like what we need. https://www.rg-group.com/images/document/GAST/E2-10%20VG.pdf#page=9