I'd love to have a Pirani gauge to go with my vacuum pump, but I can't really justify the cost. Making the hardware is trivial for me, but then how do
I calibrate it when I don't have a gauge to calibrate against?
Could I use boiling points of known liquids? I.E. pull vacuum until liquid boils, then measure temperature and use known data to get the pressure.
Does that seem reasonable for a modest calibration method? I'd be happy with 5% accuracy at this stage.
[Edited on 19-11-2019 by Twospoons]Sulaiman - 19-11-2019 at 00:43
I'd prefer not using mercury, if possible. I have naughty cats that like to climb about in my garage, so the risk of glass breakage is reasonably
high. And my garage is not a place I'd want to try to clean up a spill like that.
Thanks for the link to the BP tool - that looks really useful.12thealchemist - 20-11-2019 at 10:37
You could use ethylene glycol (bp 196°C) and oligomers thereof as high-boiling point liquids that would give you a decent range for calibration.
They're also reasonably cheap. Also glycerol (bp 290°C).Sulaiman - 20-11-2019 at 20:08
Both of the above mentioned 'substitutes' are hygroscopic,
it may be best to check b.p. / boil off water at atmospheric pressure before using.
(with compensation of b.p. for local atmospheric pressure, if you want to be precise)
P.S. I just realised that the calculator that I pointed to is wrong,
e.g. set B to 100oC (at 760 mmHg) and lock it,
scale A reads 100oC at 700 mmhg ... wtf ?
Here is the 'best' data that I could find for mercury vapour pressure for the range that I am interested in
460C = 0.5 Pa
57oC = 1.0 Pa
60oC = 1.3 Pa
data is from here
Attachment: GOVPUB_C13_Mercury_Vapour_Pressure.pdf (1.7MB) This file has been downloaded 1760 times
[Edited on 21-11-2019 by Sulaiman]Steam - 21-11-2019 at 16:46
You could always calibrate your vacuum gauge.... *dramatic pause*... with another vacuum gauge. I have a VG64 which seems to be reasonably accurate.
