My $20-30 vacuum bleeding canister

Today I went to Lowe's to buy stuff to build a canister to vacuum bleeding. I have bought 2 of the hand pumps with the tiny cheapo canisters in the past and with both sets the canister rotted the o-ring after 1 use and both pumps had the check valve wear out.

What I bought:

- 3" PVC coupler
- 2x 3" cleanout adaptors
- 3" cleanout plug (square nub on the end)
- 3" plug (flat)
- 2x NPT to hose barbs
- 20 feet of hose
- PVC glue

Stuff I already had:

- PVC primer
- Teflon tape
- Vacuum gauge

Assembly is self explainatory. I glued the flat/bottom plug in because it never needs to come out. This project cost me $26.91. I just use the engine's vacuum as a source. It's free, except the gas used to idle the car. The canister probably has more than a quart of capacity. The most difficult part of assembly is putting the barb fittings in. I have NPT taps but PVC will allow the fittings to self-tap and seal perfectly so I just always use a slightly smaller drill bit and force thread the fittings in place. The hose barb and vacuum gauge threads don't need teflon tape. I put teflon tape on the cap threads, too. I tested how it hold vacuum and it went down only a 2 or 3 inHg in 30 seconds. This was just pinching the hose and having my finger on the other barb.

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