A while back I was doing some imersion tests with different adhesives for laminating (primarilly Titebond III) and also wanted to figure out a way to use a vacuum pump instead of clamps. I was processing some fish for the deep freeze when it dawned on me to try something many of us already have in the kitchen cabinet for preserving wild game; behold the FoodSaver.
After running a couple tests I found out this handy little household appliance pulls over 22in. of mercury on an automotive vacuum guage, plus, the rolls of bag material can be custom sized to just about any length you'd need. Since it was raining like crazy this weekend I decided to give a try on some longer pieces of tigerwood I had leftover from my last build. The strips I ripped had some wicked checking in the grain and weren't useful for anything longer than about 3', but if it works, I may just use the blank for another low-viz hole gun.
In speaking with a gunbuilder that's already tried vac bagging with epoxy, I was told it created excessive foaming at the glue joints due to all the air being sucked out of the grain of the wood, so I decided to stick with Titebond III since the whole thing would be epoxy coated after the fact. The pictures pretty much explain the rest of the experiment, and after squaring up the first set of horizontal lams the glue joints look nice and tight. I added another lam to each side a day later, and I'll post some more pictures when the blank is squared and finished.