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Mike, just a note; your vacuum pump is only as good as the oil its using. The lower rated oils will vaporize at the vacuum you are pulling. The oil I buy is rated in Torr, I think the oil I use is 10 to the minus 6th torr.
As far as vacuum / pressure chambers, I cut a HP Helium cylinder is half and welded flanges on the cut ends. The vacuum chamber has a plastic window and an o-ring seal, The pressure chamber has a blank steel flange. I use Argon high pressure welding gas for the pressure.
Mike, I didn't have to go out and buy any of this stuff, it's stuff I already had and use. Like you I like to do things myself. My only investment is the time it took me to put things together. If I didn't already have a welding operation I would not go out and rent a bottle to pressurize stabilizing fluid. If I didn't already have a free cylinder to convert to vacuum and pressure chambers, I wouldn't go out and buy one to stabilize wood.
Having said all of that, I get good results. I section the wood and use an inverted metallurgical microscope to examine the results.
Good luck
John Moran
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