Question's about diy Vacuum bed's

Pass the talc powder please!
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Incogalto
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Question's about diy Vacuum bed's

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Hello everyone, recently my girlfriend and I got the urge to try one of those awesome looking vacuum bed's, and as such i set out to make her dream come true. After some digging I now know how to make the frame and valves required BUT here comes the problem: :(
Where we live getting proper latex is not feasible as there's no local suppliers and international shipping is generally not possible, as such I looked at alternative's and came across:
Mattress storage vacuum bags :?: ,after adding a breather hole I can't imagine any reasons why it wouldn't work.
We would deeply appreciate anyone who can assist us with this :3

p.s sorry for the kinda long wall of text

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Leopard99
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Re: Question's about diy Vacuum bed's

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I've made my own vacbed from PVC sheeting. Glueing done with plumber's solvent weld. A mattress bag would be easier. Most difficult part was making a workable and durable breathing hole. Need to reinforce with extra layer(s) of PVC.

The experience is different to a latex vacbed. Still great but in a different way. There's much less stretch in PVC.

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Leopard99
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Re: Question's about diy Vacuum bed's

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I found my notes from 10 years ago. Formatting may have suffered in copy/paste.
I first tried a vacbed in 2010, loved it, and decided to make my own. I’ve written about the project on IC before but it’s time to do an update and bring all the bits together in one place. The new DIY group seems a good place to do it.

First step was some online research. Apart from vendors of complete beds I found this article which was the basis of my own design: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16209027/vacbed10

There are 3 mains parts of a vacbed:

1. Bag
2. Frame
3. Vacuum cleaner

THE BAG

My main decision was to use cheap PVC sheet instead of expensive latex. The fabric stall in the local market had clear PVC on a 54” wide roll for just £2 per metre. I like the mix of metric and imperial units. I reckoned 6m would be plenty and 5.5m was actually needed. The PVC was 0.15mm thick and pretty strong.

For my first attempt I simply doubled over the sheet and glued the edges together. This gave me a bag 54” wide and 3m long. I used plumbers’ PVC cement, whose normal application is joining waste pipes. This stuff is highly flammable and excellent sniffing quality so work outdoors or in a well ventilated room. Using fine abrasive paper rough up the inside edges all the way down the long edges. About 1” width is right for the rough strip. Clean carefully and allow to dry. Spread the cement on one side only and roll down with a wallpaper seam roller. You should end up with a reasonably neat 1” wide seam. Worth trying this on a bit of scrap first. When you do the second edge, leave 6” or so unglued at the bottom. This is for the vacuum pipe entry.

Although this worked well and I used it for a year these joints were clearly a weak point. Because the glue line can never be perfectly even there are localised stresses which cause leaks. These have needed regular reinforcement and patching. The stresses on the bed were trying to tear the joints apart. Here’s a mediocre “ASCII art” diagram which doesn’t work well with the proportional font used on IC.

======================= Top PVC sheet

xxxxxx Glue layer

======================= Bottom PVC sheet

Recently I made a replacement bag, using the same sort of PVC. Another ASCII art drawing shows the join. Ignore the dots, IC won’t allow spaces at the start of a line.

======================= Top PVC sheet

………………………….xxxxxx Glue layer

………………………….======================= Bottom PVC sheet

The join is now in simple shear stress, rather than being torn apart. In retrospect the way I made this join was poor. I cut an inch of PVC off the top layer, applied the glue and folded over the bottom layer. This gives a kink in the joint which is a weak point. If I do this again I will cut the PVC in half to make 2 pieces each 54” wide and 2.5m to 3m long. No other cutting needed, just lay out the 2 sheets flat with an inch overlap to make a nice flat joint. I would probably mask the edge of the joint, partly to keep it neat, partly to make it more visible. Need to check if masking tape causes trouble with PVC cement. After the first joint is set, go back and make the other one. This approach also means gluing the bottom of the bag but that looks like a relatively low stress area.

It is probably worth cutting some inch wide PVC strips and gluing them over the joints as reinforcement.

I still haven’t resolved the best way to make a good entry for the vacuum pipe in a bottom corner. My bodgery works well enough and a bit of insulating tape will keep it airtight.

THE FRAME

I used 40mm solvent weld waste pipe and fittings. This is more expensive than push fit but more rigid. I actually had enough bits lying around. I ended up using 210cm for the long sides and 100cm for the sort sides. You’ll need 3 right angle bends (the swept 92.5 degree ones are probably a better bet than the 90 degree knuckles) and a T piece. All the bits can be bought from Screwfix who are cheaper than most. http://www.screwfix.com/cats/101249/Plu ... Weld-Waste Your local DIY shop or plumbers merchant will also have the stuff though many DIY places don’t stock solvent weld pipe and fittings. You can use the cheaper push fit pipe but it’s not as rigid as the solvent weld type so the sides might be a bit bendy. A short length of 40mm pipe and some kind of adaptor to your vacuum cleaner nozzle completes the basic plumbing. My adaptor comprised a 40mm to 32mm adaptor ring, a few inches of 32mm waste pipe and a few inches of 32mm yellow gas pipe. A duct tape bodge can work fine too.

The four main pipes need small holes drilled at intervals down their length. I used 4mm holes at 50mm spacing but I don’t think it’s critical. I leave it as an interesting exercise to find a simple way of ruling a straight line down a tube. I later drilled more holes, it’s now 3 rows of 4mm holes at 25mm spacing. 1 row on centre line, the others about 10mm above and below. This stops all the holes being blocked as the sheet is sucked down. I really think this is overdoing it.

Don’t cement the tubes to the fittings. That only makes it impossible to dismantle the bed. If the joints are a bit loose and tend to pull out then insulating tape will solve the problem. I have thought about a more advanced solution with L shaped slots cut in the connectors plus short screws near the ends of the pipes. This would give a twist and lock arrangement. Assemble the frame with the holes all pointing inwards. Don’t attach the short pipe yet.

The long tubes are bit of a nuisance for transport. I have contemplated cutting them in half and using straight couplers. Whenever you see a vacbed like this the sides are always badly bowed inwards. I have thought about using long internal or external sleeves instead of standard couplers. These should give better rigidity but I haven’t tried anything yet.

ASSEMBLY

You now should have a bag and a frame. Push the frame into the bag, making sure the T is at the corner where there is an unglued section of PVC sheet. Insert the short pipe through the hole. This is much easier to do with a helper and you’ll need one for the next step anyway. Get in the bed, position the top of your head about 3” inside the top pipe. The other person marks the position of your nose and mouth. Get out before the next step. With a cutting mat (thick card will do) use a craft knife to cut a breathing hole. The shape of the breathing hole is a bit of compromise. After several experiments and quite a lot of patching torn PVC I have arrived at a roughly triangular hole, about 80mm high by 60mm wide. This has nicely rounded corners which I set out using a coin about 25mm diameter. I have reinforced the edges using small tabs of PVC, solvent welded over the edges.

Alternative breathing methods include a small hole with a pipe, small hole with a mask and a neck gasket so the entire head is outside the bed. The last of these is good for those with ear problems but doesn’t look feasible in PVC.

VACUUM CLEANER

I used a Hoover Aquamaster wet’n’dry which has a variable speed control. This is very useful. Actually I went a stage further and used a Variac variable voltage transformer (just the sort of thing I have around) to give fine and smooth control all the way down to zero speed. There is a potential problem when using a vacuum cleaner with a vacbed. In most machines the motor is cooled by the air rushing past. When the bed is evacuated there is very little airflow so the motor can easily overheat. Keep the speed down to minimise this. Feel the temperature of the exhaust air when using the bed to check. I can take no responsibility if you burn out your vacuum cleaner. Wet’n’dry cleaners normally have a separate fan to cool the motor so they will be fine under any conditions.

An alternative way of doing speed control is a light dimmer. Unfortunately common domestic dimmer switches are only rated up to about 500 watts which won’t last long when used with most vacs. The 1500W version of this motor speed controller will do a good job: http://www.quasarelectronics.com/cr0008 ... -1500w.htm Make sure you build it safely into a plastic box.

TESTING, TESTING

Don’t even think about going solo in a vacbed – you must have somebody else to help you. Agree the safety procedure. It’s difficult to talk or listen so “tap tap” on the floor with an agreed hand is the “safe word”. The helper MUST turn off and unroll the top immediately if this happens. Remove glasses, watches, collars, cuffs, keys – anything hard that might dig in and hurt. Or worse still damage the bed. Get in the bed and position your nose and mouth under the breathing hole. Your helper then closes the top of the bed by rolling it up over a broomstick or a spare length of pipe. A clip is useful to stop it unrolling. Connect the vacuum cleaner and switch on. Wind up the speed gently. It often helps to swallow hard to equalise the pressure on your eardrums. I’m fairly sensitive to this but had no problems. A few people can suffer nasty pain in their ears. This is bad pain, don’t try to work through it, use the safety signal immediately.

Enjoy! You can tickle and tease somebody very effectively when they’re inside. A Hitachi Magic Wand or similar massager is excellent. Mild CP is also possible but choose the toys carefully to avoid damaging the bed. I’m looking at turning over the bed so that the classic CP areas are exposed. This will need an arrangment of cushions or perhaps a swimming ring to keep the breathing hole clear of the floor.

HYGIENE

I would recommend using an antiseptic wipe around the breathing hole after every user. It is possible to crawl inside the bag and give it a wipe out too, perhaps after a few sessions, especially if people have been naked or nearly so. With care it can be turned it inside out and fully wiped or washed.

CONCLUSIONS

A vacbed is a bit like Marmite, you either love it or hate it. I love my vacbed but I hate Marmite. PVC doesn’t stretch and conform like latex but it’s very constricting. If anything PVC gives a more intense experience. The second bag works a lot better than the first. Partly because it’s less leaky and works well with the vac running much slower. It also seems to hug more tightly, this may be because the PVC is more highly plasticised and slightly softer. I suspect the plasticiser will deteriorate over time so the PVC will harden. This may have happened to my first bag which is kept flat on a spare bed, looking like a mattress protector. I plan to keep the second bag folded up in a dark cupboard. Only time will tell.

Happy to advise and help others on making their own but I’m not making any to sell.

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Incogalto
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Re: Question's about diy Vacuum bed's

Unread post by Incogalto »

Oh that's great information you two thank you so much :D <3
i will see about finding pvc sheet it's a great suggestion but im not sure if id be able to pull it off, so i was wondering about these bags. As it would require no glueing and already has a zipper? https://www.amazon.com/Mattress-Compres ... arketplace

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Leopard99
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Location: London

Re: Question's about diy Vacuum bed's

Unread post by Leopard99 »

I prefer the entry to be via a rolled up end rather than a zip but just try it.

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