I am currently running two vacuum chambers in parallel. One is stabilizing some burl and the other is drying half a log. Every time I switch from pulling vacuum on one chamber to the other, I swap hoses at the pump. So I thought, why not buy or make an A/B manifold? It would be a 1/4 female flare into a tee with two valves and two male 1/4 flare fittings.
Of course, there are some possibilities for things to go seriously wrong such as flipping the wrong valve and evacuating all my pump oil into one of the chambers. Or possibly something more subtle such as more places for leaks, or maybe the manifold placing too much torque on the pump fitting and causing metal fatigue or seal degradation over time.
What is considered "best practice" here? I can see an argument that the manifold introduces more problems than it solves and I should just keep swapping hoses. If an A/B manifold is a good choice, next question is whether a newbie can reasonably expect to get it to seal when building it from components.
Of course, there are some possibilities for things to go seriously wrong such as flipping the wrong valve and evacuating all my pump oil into one of the chambers. Or possibly something more subtle such as more places for leaks, or maybe the manifold placing too much torque on the pump fitting and causing metal fatigue or seal degradation over time.
What is considered "best practice" here? I can see an argument that the manifold introduces more problems than it solves and I should just keep swapping hoses. If an A/B manifold is a good choice, next question is whether a newbie can reasonably expect to get it to seal when building it from components.