Tom Gall
TOTW Team
NO! After doing that on my system for 26 yrs. I've never had a problem. Basically when you close the ball valve the pump (assuming no leaks) is pulling maximum vacuum - that's what it is designed to do. Back in the days when I used vacuum for some semi-production runs I would leave the pump running for 3-4 hours at a time. I did add a fan to cool off the motor & pump though. It goes on whenever the pump is on.This thread has been a huge help in figuring out what I need for my vacuum chuck system. The pump (Gast 0523) and manifold parts are arriving today and my rotary adapter and chuck are finished. The manifold will have a needle type bleed valve and a ball valve for vacuum shutoff, filter at the pump, no quick connectors, and every other recommendation from this thread that I could incorporate. One operational question remains. Is it bad for the pump to be on while the vacuum is cut off by the ball valve? Obviously, I wouldn't leave it running that way any longer than needed, but I'm curious what effect that has on the pump.