Vacuum pump question (2023 Update)

There is a third type of suction pump used in biomedical applications, uses a heating element inside an air canister, with check valves on the input and output. Heating element cycles on, air expands & gets pushed out one side. Heater turns off, it sucks air in through the other checkvalve. If nurses hook it up wrong or if the jar to catch the blech gets full, all that crud gets sucked into the canister & cooks on the heating element. Probably the worst job I ever had to do as a biomed tech was to fix that.

OK, I had a good look at it today. It's a Gomco 792 aspirator. It does use oil after all. I found a box packed with it, with some spares, and a new can of vacuum oil! The parts kit includes a new filter. There is also a manual, that is little more than a brochure. Several of these pumps are currently advertised on the net for around $400.00, so I guess a tool gloat is in order! The pump is apparently a rotary vane type made of cast iron with bronze slides/vanes.

Steve R.

I used a spare vacuum pump a few years ago rather than suck on a pipe to assist in syphoning some petrol. I didn't use a fluid trap but turned off the pump as soon as soon as I possibly could - despite that a tiny, minscule drop of fuel somehow reached the pump. Nothing, not even multiple changes of oil would make the whiff of petrol go away every time the pump was used (for composites consolidation). In the end a full strip and seal change was necessary.

My mistake, it's a Gomco 789. Spare parts no longer available. Otherwise it works well. It's still worth much more than I paid for it. The pump will be just dandy for my needs. Any kind of used vacuum pump is very hard to find where I live. There are lot's of research labs in the Greater Victoria area, but used pumps just seem to be stored away, and seldom wind up on the local market.

Steve R.

Hi, I also have a gomco pump , but I don't known what kind of oil it is used Ford it , could You please give me the información?

Just search vacuum pump oil. Its probably a generic light mineral oil since in many applications you are supposed to replace it after each use or two. If you have used it on a compressor burnout system and/or its an expensive pump every time.

Hi, I also have a gomco pump , but I don't known what kind of oil it is used Ford it , could You please give me the información?

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It's a medical pump so the industrial oil types may not be right for it.

Hi, I also have a gomco pump , but I don't known what kind of oil it is used Ford it , could You please give me the información?

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This is a good resource for medical equipment if you don't have dealer support where you are.

Likely "they say" its been filtered and chemically tested to make sure its "pure" light mineral oil, a medical label has been slapped on it, and the accountant chortled evilly as he slapped a 10000% markup on it.

Kinda like a Black & Decker bone drill. (No shit.)

Likely "they say" its been filtered and chemically tested to make sure its "pure" light mineral oil, a medical label has been slapped on it, and the accountant chortled evilly as he slapped a 10000% markup on it.

Kinda like a Black & Decker bone drill. (No shit.)

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I worked in the medical industry and know what you mean, that environment is substantially controlled by the threats of lawsuits and government (mis)management.

ISO9000 you are covered if you followed the procedures. I can't stop him from filling it with used motor oil, but he's been warned.

Don't use second-hand vacuum pump oil from a chemistry lab or semiconductor fab line.

When the opportunity arose I bought a wheelchair with title so I'll have it the moment when needed, not months later. I had been the executor of an elderly gentleman who was in it for many years, and after he died the supplier offered to sell it cheap. I've loaned it out to needy friends while they waited for paperwork and used it myself when my knee went out.

Back when I was servicing manual and powered wheelchairs between high tech R&D jobs an armrest pad that should cost $5 in Walmart went for $50 when billed to Medicare. For that price I'd reupholster it, a skill I learned as a stagehand. This "post-industrial" society struggles to support more and more people on less and less created value.

My wife talks about being in med school and they literally used a Black & Decker drill for orthopedics, then later they were told it had to have a medical certification. The only difference was the color of the plastic... and the price. I may have the details off a little, but that is the gist of it.

P.S. A few years back (ten or fifteen maybe) I was doing some work on the security system for a warehouse for a transfer company, and in one section of the warehouse was hundreds (maybe thousands) of old (not that old) bedside medical monitors being exported.

Some vacumn pumps have carbon vanes which like some people should not have an alcohol near tem . animal

Some vacumn pumps have carbon vanes which like some people should not have an alcohol near tem . animal

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Do you have references for that?

P.S. A few years back (ten or fifteen maybe) I was doing some work on the security system for a warehouse for a transfer company, and in one section of the warehouse was hundreds (maybe thousands) of old (not that old) bedside medical monitors being exported.

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Maybe Frank received some in Tanzania or Zambia.

My wife talks about being in med school and they literally used a Black & Decker drill for orthopedics, then later they were told it had to have a medical certification. The only difference was the color of the plastic... and the price. I may have the details off a little, but that is the gist of it.

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We must be safe, at any price.

My contribution was repairing medical devices so at least they weren't thrown away.

<snip>

Though of you the other day and your working on these items while listening to this NPR clip:

A lot could be learned from your experience with the hassles and liability worries but I'm sure the businesses currently doing it would quickly squash any changes :(

P.S. A few years back (ten or fifteen maybe) I was doing some work on the security system for a warehouse for a transfer company, and in one section of the warehouse was hundreds (maybe thousands) of old (not that old) bedside medical monitors being exported.

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Maybe Frank received some in Tanzania or Zambia.

"Material donations of technical tools regularly arrive at the hospital. A recurring problem, however, is that there are no specialists in the country specifically educated in medical technology. A dentist’s chair complete with all its functions or an x-ray machine cannot be repaired by an electrician. There are no service networks from the manufacturer available in the country. Even replacement parts are often hard to come by, and when they are available, they are very expensive."

Manufacturers who require factory-authorized service have attempted to shut him down. They have the burden of proving a procedure wasn't followed or a part that failed was counterfeit, for example a locally fabricated part that fell off a DC-10 caused the Concorde crash.

"The engine part (a thrust reverser wear strip) had recently been replaced in routine maintenance. The mechanic who did the work used a strip made of an alloy with 90 percent titanium content, not stainless steel as specified by the manufacturer of the engine."

The answer isn't easy. If the Government demands control over your creations you may stop producing them. Many desirable foreign autos aren't legal to import.

"Each year, millions of US residents participate in medical tourism. Medical tourists from the United States commonly travel to Mexico and Canada, as well as countries in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean."

Though of you the other day and your working on these items while listening to this NPR clip:

A lot could be learned from your experience with the hassles and liability worries but I'm sure the businesses currently doing it would quickly squash any changes :(

Leon Fisk

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My father was the deputy commissioner and CFO of NH's largest state department, and thus I knew a number of important people socially and listened to them. He had to swallow his frustrations at work and then unloaded them on us at home, and I have his temperament. I'll confine myself to swinging a wrench and mildly complaining or presenting both sides. I did work as lab manager at a think tank that addressed governmental issues, the Mitre Corporation, so I was exposed to what they were, like the dilemma of providing public funding to work that may lead to private gain, such as medical research. Non-profit FFRDCs are one solution.

I think the weirdest connection to government I had was preparing a revolver with blanks to be shot at a community theatre actor whose was prosecuting a vicious murderer by day and expertly playing one (Dickens' Bill Sikes) at night. The second was driving in European city traffic with a loaded machine gun after the Munich Olympics massacre.