How to make a vacuum (or pressure) gauge

Vacuum and pressure are two sides of the same coin. A manometer can measure both. In this episode, Harley shows how to make a DIY gauge to measure relatively low vacuums and pressures for shop use.
Part 1: How to quiet a shop vac: • How to quiet a shop va...
Part 2: Central shop vac efficiency: • How to quiet a shop va...
Unit conversion web site:
www.theunitconverter.com/unit-...
For a written transcript, go to
www.house-of-hacks.com/2015/09...
Music and photos under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Incidental music:
“George Street Shuffle” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
“Mining by Moonlight” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
SU Carbs photo: by Cgxke at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Photos under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic:
Organ pipes photo: by Xauxa at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

[@HouseOfHacks]

Skip the theory and go right to the build: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJu5nWBmhcmliM0m4s How to quiet a shop vac - Physical build (Part 1): kzbin.info/www/bejne/joKqgKipnpqraac How to quiet a shop vac - noise reduction measurements (Part 2): kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5Ovdp-km7-gpNE

[@jasonkyler8444]

sorry to be offtopic but does anyone know of a tool to get back into an Instagram account? I was stupid lost my account password. I love any assistance you can offer me

[@jasonkyler8444]

@Grady Cody Thanks for your reply. I got to the site on google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff now. Seems to take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@jasonkyler8444]

@Grady Cody It did the trick and I now got access to my account again. I am so happy:D Thank you so much you saved my ass!

[@gradycody9006]

@Jason Kyler you are welcome :D

[@edwardpatrick403]

I spent 13 years in the family counter top and cabinet business before spending another 33 years in Air Force, NASA, and private labs doing ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) and space environment simulation. I began watching your video with no expectations, but armed with considerable knowledge and experience. I have to say this is the most brilliant, concise, and clear description of pressure measurement I have ever seen. Kudos. I can't wait to go home and build my own.

[@HouseOfHacks]

Wow! Thank you so much for the complement and your service to our country.

[@hugomartinez5897]

I just built one really quick and measured my gas pressure to the water heater - 8 " WC! I was going to use plywood and screw a ruler onto it, but your idea of going with spare pegboard was a real time saver! The holes are 1 inch apart, so no ruler needed! The zip ties to the holes was much better than my planned clamps - another time-saver! I am an engineer at NASA Houston and a DIY'er, but I'm glad I saw your video before making a manometer the hard way! Thanks again!

[@jimchallender4616]

I am anxiously waiting for your followup re your shop-vac enclosure. Love your tech education - great stuff!!

[@Grumpy7433]

Thanks. you've given me the solution on how to determine whether my furnace filter is needing replacement, 1/2 way there, etc. Excellent! And I totally appreciate the 're-purposing' of scrap stuff already in the garage.

[@HouseOfHacks]

That's a great use for a manometer! Yeah, I'd rather reuse something than throw things away and then later buy replacements, much to my wife's chagrin. :-) Peace.

[@davidcummings2020]

Its great that your cheap and can teach basic principles so well .

[@jamesdonnelly8888]

Great, and as you know not cheap, just relating to the world around you at a different level. As engineers we have to understand how things work and the ideal way is to make our instruments

[@apibasher]

Sir,Respect,love and red salute to you,you are great teacher.Thanks whileheartedly.

[@ceilingwalker1]

Subscribed.....loved it! I just installed a new furnace in my dog kennel/garage. I moved from a city of abundance, to a city with little to offer, as far as purchasing a manometer is concerned. I couldn't order one, I needed it right away. Your video showed me how to make my own, which is just as accurate as any I could purchase. Sometimes money isn't the only motivator. Awesome video!

[@HouseOfHacks]

+ceilingwalker1 Thanks! Yeah, many times money isn't the only motivator. For me, many times it's learning and the satisfaction of doing it. Did you need the manometer for the furnace project? Cheers.

[@ceilingwalker1]

House of Hacks Yes. I converted my furnace from NG to Propane. After changing orfices and regulator spring I had to use the manometer to set Propane flow to 11" w.c. No one sells them around me. I bought a Radon manometer and tried to make it work however, it only went up to 5" w.c. I thought there was enough wiggle room to make it work but there wasnt.

[@HouseOfHacks]

Ah, right. Interesting application. Thanks for filling me in on the details. Peace.

[@mygiguser]

You are not cheap, just a little frugal. Thanks for sharing this video!

[@HouseOfHacks]

:-) Thanks for watching! Cheers.

[@KDNACH1]

you learn more by doing it yourself. you present the subject really well. Thanks

[@HouseOfHacks]

Yes, you do. Thanks for watching.

[@anthonyalegria7096]

First time finding you. Great video and this device will be perfect for what I want to do. Thanks!

[@AnyHouseCleaning]

Like your explanation

[@HouseOfHacks]

Glad you liked it!

[@EcProjects]

Simple, but very useful ! Thanks for sharing ! :)

[@HouseOfHacks]

+EcProjects Thanks, yeah, I think it'll be useful for other things too.

[@MrVendigor]

You are great!!! Thnx a lot for your detailed explanation.

[@HouseOfHacks]

+MrViking You're welcome. Thanks for watching. Peace.

[@fatherof8kids]

Excellent video. I needed to make one for measuring the draw of my chimney at my wood stove. Thanks.

[@HouseOfHacks]

Glad to help. That's an interesting use that's new to me; sounds kind of technical. What type of application do you have where you need to measure the draft accurately?

[@fatherof8kids]

I have a wood burning furnace that uses an automatic draft control. www.fieldcontrols.com/draft-control-1?page_id=95

[@HouseOfHacks]

Interesting. Cool stuff. Thanks for the link. Cheers.

[@Martins643]

Thanks! Super!

[@RavindraGodbole]

Good explanation

[@HouseOfHacks]

Thanks!

[@aishwarikmandal]

I was searching for something to make in my science fest. Thanks man , got it :)

[@HouseOfHacks]

That's awesome!

[@roberthorwat6747]

Cheap is good. Liked. Subscribed and rang that bell.

[@HouseOfHacks]

Awesome! Welcome! Thanks for watching and looking forward to seeing you around.

[@jaishetty8586]

Brilliant !!.

[@HouseOfHacks]

Thanks!

[@russelleickstadt9160]

Too good!! thank you

[@HouseOfHacks]

Most welcome 😊

[@automotiveservice6828]

Great explanations of Absolute and Gauge Pressures.

[@HarleyPebley]

Thank you. Peace.

[@rltech8327]

Nice Video

[@HouseOfHacks]

Thank you. Cheers.

[@genebowdish.mageniemagic]

Thank you, Gene Bowdish

[@HouseOfHacks]

You're welcome!

[@siamakaghazeinali]

thanks very usefull

[@jorgeguia4959]

Wow instruction were very easy follow and i did spend only 14 bucks thanka for your tutorial

[@HouseOfHacks]

Super! Thanks! What are you using your gauge for? Peace.

[@stauffap]

I used a different method for rough measurements, but the method can measure lower pressures then your gauge and it's more compact, that your gauge. I'm also using a tube, but i'm using oil and i close one end of the tube but let a bit of air at the end of the tube. Then you need to calculate a tiny bit. If the air volume in the tube doubles, then you have 0.5bars of absolute pressure. If the air volume quadruples you have 0.25 bars of pressure and so on. Of course you can make the scale as precise as you want by using Boyles law.

[@HouseOfHacks]

+stau ffap Thanks for commenting.

[@abdessamedghettas7167]

thanks

[@jeffreystroman2811]

Recently I had our motor guy who was dropping off a 25 hp 3 phase motor say to me, "never make something you can buy" and that's fine for him. It's also the reason I had to get involved because he couldn't figure out how to fix the problem.

[@HouseOfHacks]

Yep, we all make choices about what's important for us to learn and what we'd rather pay for someone else to know. We're all unique in what we know and don't know and don't know we don't know. :-)

[@AhmedAboudGP]

Thanks

[@HouseOfHacks]

You're welcome!

[@omsingharjit]

Can i make , Advance Thermocouple based using Broken small light Bulb and Two wire thermo couples and using Arduino and opamps ? For measurements in 100 to 1000 Microns of Hg range using DIY version ?

[@HouseOfHacks]

There is relationship between pressure, volume and temperature. So, if you have the correct setup, you can use temperature changes to detect pressure changes. Whether what you have will work for your application, I don't know. Here are a couple resources that might help you get started: www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/thermocouple-gauge www.belljar.net/tcgauge.htm

[@dasundilshan7265]

❤️❤️❤️ clearly explain to brain❤️😘, but how can i applying this to my 4 silinder bike to for carburetor synchronizing?

[@HouseOfHacks]

You'd need to make one for each cylinder and put them on a single piece of wood to make it easy to compare them. The size of the tubing doesn't make a difference, so you can use smaller diameter that will fit on your carbs and not be so bulky.

[@pjstock135]

how would I use this to test air flow in a house when doing an energy efficiency pressure test (if I used an industrial fan to depressurize the house)? Just leave one end of the long tube outside and the gauge inside?

[@HouseOfHacks]

Interesting application! It wouldn't matter where the gauge was located, just one end inside and one end outside, with a good seal where it makes the transition. It'd be interesting to see if there's enough pressure differential to be accurately measured using this type of tool. I suspect that the amount of movement in the water level might be hard to measure but I'm certainly no expert in HVAC type applications. Good luck!

[@WireWeHere]

A little off what you were commenting but slightly pressurizing your home can be beneficial especially when answering the door. Differential pressure measurement, which is what your indoor outdoor liquid filled tubing is doing, is used all the time in industrial automation to keep tabs on filters etc. Hope you kept going wherever your project has taken you since it's usually, at the very least, an interesting rabbit hole to jump into although getting out is a hole different story. Your comment caught my interest and no I don't have a w shortage. Did you eventually find the answers you were looking for under pressure?

[@dasundilshan7265]

is this usefull for make a carburetor synchronizer ?

[@HouseOfHacks]

Yes, the same principle applies to make something to sync carbs. See my other reply.

[@PetertheGreatest1]

Wouldn't different sized tubing give different length water columns?

[@HouseOfHacks]

That was my intuition too at first. I was thinking that the changing mass of the water column at different sizes would change how easy it is to move. But, no, the air pressure on the end changes proportionally to the size of the tubing, and so the tubing size doesn't matter. Another way to think about it is as the amount of water in the tube changes size with different sized tubes, the amount of air pressure on top changes in exactly the same way. Hope that makes sense. Cheers.

[@PetertheGreatest1]

sure. thanks!

[@ocayaro]

Good device, but for science experiments water vapor contamination might be a problem. Perhaps mercury? Using mercury will mean a shorter manometer, and less contamination.

[@HouseOfHacks]

Yes, good point. If a minor amount of water vapor is an issue, this wouldn't be the best style. It all depends on context. For most DIY/shop purposes, this probably would be sufficient and mercury is much harder to deal with in a DIY environment. If the vapor is a concern, it's probably easiest to just get a commercial gauge.

[@Devestato72]

can I use this OK n my motorcycle to sync the carbs?

[@HouseOfHacks]

+james dean Sure, you do need one for each carb though. Here's a video of someone using one like this on their bike: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKnOqI1jg6mmjNU

[@Devestato72]

Tk u sir

[@BuildswithBrian]

I tried this with my shop vac and it sucked all the water out of the tube and into the vac. Everything was setup just like yours. Any idea what might have happened?

[@BuildswithBrian]

I think I figured it out, first I don’t think I had enough water in my manometer, and second when you first turn on the shop vac there seems to be a sudden surge of pressure that settles down and equalizes, now I’m getting an accurate reading of about 51 inches water column once it settles down. Which according to my conversions is about 3.75 inches of mercury, and approximately 1.8 psi Thank you for making this video

[@HouseOfHacks]

Sorry, I didn't back sooner. Yeah, my first thought was more water was needed. Sounds like you confirmed that. Glad you got it sorted!

[@BuildswithBrian]

House of Hacks , Yes I actually did and it works great, thanks for explaining and giving a practical demonstration

[@k001976]

It's worth it if it could calibrate with fortin barometer.

[@timdunk7278]

Music too loud/competitive, but great info. Thank you.

[@realSamAndrew]

What is competitive music? Is that a typo?

[@donthomas8061]

Why did you place the containers in a vacuum in the beginning of the explanation? Like a submarine underwater, the gas inside a container of constant volume will not be affected by the atmosphere outside. Placing them in a vacuum seems like a distraction. Nice video though.

[@Blurns]

The internal diameter really doesn't matter?

[@HouseOfHacks]

Correct. The pressure is proportional to the diameter, so as the diameter changes, the pressure changes in a relative way such that the reading ends up the same.

[@LLuE88]

you had better put a RELIABLE RESTRICTOR in the OUTFLOW OF THE tube or else you will suck all of your fluid into your vacuum cleaner before you can say what happened?? a larger tube than shown here will help slow the potentially violent out flow. regards

[@HouseOfHacks]

Two things: 1) No restrictor plate is needed. Vacuum cleaners aren't anywhere near powerful enough to pull the water that far. 2) If they were powerful enough to pull that kind of vacuum, a restrictor wouldn't keep the water from being pulled out, it would just slow it down a tiny bit. The pressure would still eventually equalize. Cheers.

[@LLuE88]

TRY IT SOME TIME WITH YOUR OWN EQUIPMENT, REGARDS

[@HouseOfHacks]

You mean like I did here? kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5Ovdp-km7-gpNEm5s (Why are you yelling?) Cheers.

[@aishwarikmandal]

You are damn funny, man

[@HouseOfHacks]

Thanks!

[@benshapiro2wt298]

or you could buy the one advertised under your video for $7 haha

[@HouseOfHacks]

Haha, sure, if you didn't want the fun of making your own. :-)

[@benshapiro2wt298]

haha yeah id end up making one for fun and buying one for use

[@HouseOfHacks]

If I did that, I'd get two values and then get confused. It's been said a man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two is never sure. :-D

[@benshapiro2wt298]

Hah i love that

[@roncraig007]

In the days when an accurate chronometer was vital to know your longitude, the saying was, “Go to sea with one watch or three, never two.”

[@jaimecogollok4855]

bla bla bla

[@mark4asp]

The backgroud music is load and annoying. Made we want to turn you off.