Boys, we’re rebuilding a vacuum pump today.🔧

2-stage rotary vane.

It’s kinda old and needed a $200 parts+seals kit, but still a pretty good deal since I got it as a free hand-me-down and the new/rebuild units go for $1500 and up.

First time taking one of these apart, so didn’t really know what to expect. This one had definitely been abused; lots of rust flakes floating all around the pump case.

But it’s surprisingly clean on the internals though; I guess the filters really did their job.

As with any first-time projects you want to take lots of pictures and leave lots of bins ready to keep the various components/mechanisms.

Here you can see the internals and how the rotary vanes work. Pretty neat.

Anyway, standard process of unbolting, inventory, clean, degrease, and then carefully reassemble.

Not as complex as I was expecting; the only sketchy parts were the spring-loaded one-way valves and the main shaft that needed some love taps to get loose. Stripped out a couple hex bolts that were on too tight, but ended up removing safely with the next-size-up torx bit and a hammer to seat them into the mangled holes. Worked surprisingly well.

Anyway, the pump is 80% reassembled, except for the 2 M4 socket screws that need replacing. Will have to hit the homeless despot in the morning🤠

Hopefully put together and ready for testing tomorrow