Finally got vac pump and regulator up and going and glassed up a tail last night. Apart from the leaks (5min for the pump to cycle on again in dry run, 30sec this time Why oh why does it always work perfect on the dry run), started having trouble with the switch a little.
I always pictured this but it seemed to be fine on all the dry runs I did. Its a micro switch, with a big washer that pushed down on the lever from the switch when it gets pulled down with the vacuum diaphram (at work so can't get picture).
This is the type of micro switch I'm using:
Anyway, it gets down to where its at that point where the vac is almost enough, , starts pushing the switch down and drops the power to the pump but not fully. What I end up with was that welding arc sound, the pump groaning and maybe switching on for a sec then off, and cycling like that till I would give it a kick and then it would depress the switch properly and it would switch it off until vac had dropped 10 odd kpa and cycle properly.
It was switching on my wifes touch lamp and had me out of bed at 3am trying to fix it (after an already bad start to the sleeping), cause it just kept going, and was making some bad sounds through all the wiring.
Any thoughts on trying to fix it? Is the lever from the switch too long allowing too small a movement (to high a resolution sort of thing) meaning it will almost switch off?
Any help would be great
Cheers, Stu