by Doug Coulter » Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:47 am
Wow, that's a lotta Santovac -- a real good chunk of change to fill that guy (I'd guess they get a good discount over Lesker's pricing). We are seeing a lot of diff pumps in that size range around here, going cheap as surplus, but what in heck would one do with one as a "home lab"? So far, I've not been able to get interested in buying any, though they are going for about the price of the scrap metal, I've just not figured out a use for one. I'm even having trouble figureing out what they were used for locally. We don't have any big semiconductor fab, no CD's are made here that I know of, no big deposition outfits I'm aware of. We do have some steel business, so maybe someone was doing heats under vacuum.
I've seen some of that other stuff, huge roughing pumps, used in HVAC gear for a large church up in the DC area I happened to be at. Another tech-head heard the thing running and dragged me over there to look at it, and yep, big roots pumps -- he'd recognized the sound.
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.