Drilling/Tapping Releaser Inlet Tank

[sugarstone]

I have a Bernard Double Mechanical Releaser. Presently there are five .75inch inlets entering the 6in. diameter "tank" at the top.
All my 2300 taps are getting vac'ed here. Releaser is rated for 3000.
I'am close to finishing the installation of my wet/dry lines and now have to decide what to do with the Releaser.
The wet line is 1.25in. Should I try to get the tank re-drilled to accept 1.25in pipe or take the quicker route and reduce the 1.25in line down to two .75in lines (area difference: 1.23in2 vs. .88in2)???
Same for the 1.5in....use up the three remaining .75in inlets (1.77in2 vs. 1.32in2)???
I would then have two .75inch wet lines and three .75inch drys.
...I need a drink.

[Bucket Head]

I have no experience with mechanical vacuum..., so I take it that the releaser is made of plastic? Similar to pool pumps and filter plastic?

If so, you can drill and tap that. I used to help a buddy of mine that had a pool business. We were always repairing, and sometimes cobbling, filtration units. The problem with the pool stuff was that it was under pressure and you usually only had a few threads in whatever thickness the plastic was. Done right, they will hold. The benfit with maple is that the repair will be under vacuum. It won't come shooting out if it does'nt hold, you'll just lose vacuum.

Theres my two cents, but I'm sure there are lots of guys on here with more repair experience on the vacuum systems.

Steve

[Dave Y]

I would try to re-drill the holes to accept the lines you are installing. That could be difficult due to the fact that the center is out of the hole. I would depend on what you are drilling with.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I would bring the DRY line into just 1 of the holes because the vacuum will evacuate the dry line up to the vacuum you are showing on the releaser guage. Its differant if you were pushing liquid thru the line verses gases. What does it matter if the 1 1/2 dry line reduces down to 1" as long as the vacuum levels stay equal at the releaser manifold and the end of the dry line.