Thread: Pressure Pot for Resin Casting

Generally, we have all waited til supercheap auto has a sale on theirs. That's what I did. Then do a search for pressure pots on the forum as 'big shed' did a perfect write up on how to modify it for resin casting

The cheaper alternative is the Supercheap Auto pots, but these only have a working allowable pressure of 40-45psi, although many push the limits . A better alternative, although more expensive, is a proper paint or glue pressure pot. These take 60/75/100 psi depending on the pot and also come in larger sizes. They come up occasionally at auctions as secondhand, and although involve a lot of work cleaning up and often removing mixers etc on the large ones, they are generally a lot better.

I have an old cast aluminium 10L pot and a welded steel plate 20L pot both running at 75psi

I decided to have a bit of fun and designed my own pressure pot based on a large diameter gas pipe offcut sourced cheaply from a metal recycler. The pipe already had a flange so I asked a local fabricator to weld on a bottom plate and cut a top plate that could be bolted to the flange. A pressure guage and a couple of valves later I have a pressure chamber rated for pressures up to 200 psi for under $300 - which well exceeds the 90psi capability of my compressor!!

Originally Posted by Phily

I decided to have a bit of fun and designed my own pressure pot based on a large diameter gas pipe offcut sourced cheaply from a metal recycler. The pipe already had a flange so I asked a local fabricator to weld on a bottom plate and cut a top plate that could be bolted to the flange. A pressure guage and a couple of valves later I have a pressure chamber rated for pressures up to 200 psi for under $300 - which well exceeds the 90psi capability of my compressor!!

Sounds interesting and a good idea, although just because the pipe can take 200psi, doesn't mean the bottom plate or the connection can, unless designed to take it. I was thinking of using an old gas cylinder similar to the one Brendan has.

Good point Neil, I should have emphasised that I engaged a fabricator certified for pressure welding. The top plate is heavy steel with 8 large bolts provided by the fabricator as being suitable for the application. It is well over engineered for my use as I only take the pressure up to a max of 80 psi for the resin casts.