Vacuum Sealing Snall Spares

[gts1544]

FOLKS,
There may be other threads on this, but I have not seen them. I recently purchased a commercial grade vacuum sealer and rolls of 8" and 11" bag material for preserving food at home.

Last year, while aboard our boat, I noticed the deterioration of items in our spares locker due to the salt environment and got the idea to vacuum seal the smaller items with our unit. The results have been as expected. New or newly cleaned items now remain pristine while vacuum sealed until placed into service. The resultant cost savings has more than offset the cost of the bag material. I most recently lost a Balmar alternator rebuild kit and a Air Breeze wind generator rebuild kit - Cost approx. $400. No More!

I hope that others will find this useful. gts1544 - George

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by gts1544

FOLKS,

I hope that others will find this useful. gts1544 - George

I did, good idea I hadn't thought of, thanks

[Prairie Chicken]

Good idea!

[Stumble]

I love vaccume sealing stuff. Other good ideas are ships papers, passports, cash, pretty much anything paper or valuable that isn't used regularly.

[HopCar]

I use my wife's kitchen vacuum sealer to package my flares.

[Symphony]

great idea, George. what brand sealer do you use, and how is the bagging material handled? Do you keep it all on the boat?

[Comix Bay]

Originally Posted by gts1544

FOLKS,
There may be other threads on this, but I have not seen them. I recently purchased a commercial grade vacuum sealer and rolls of 8" and 11" bag material for preserving food at home.

Last year, while aboard our boat, I noticed the deterioration of items in our spares locker due to the salt environment and got the idea to vacuum seal the smaller items with our unit. The results have been as expected. New or newly cleaned items now remain pristine while vacuum sealed until placed into service. The resultant cost savings has more than offset the cost of the bag material. I most recently lost a Balmar alternator rebuild kit and a Air Breeze wind generator rebuild kit - Cost approx. $400. No More!

I hope that others will find this useful. gts1544 - George

Hi List,

It is a common practice in the military to package and preserve (P&P) items by means of vacuum sealing. They keep for years that way. With that being said, they must/should be properly identified, cleaned, packaged and preserved prior to being sealed. I have in the past put into service parts that were packaged and preserved during WWII, Korea and Viet Nam after careful cleaning and examination. Ask anyone who has had to clean the grease from a personal weapon how well they keep. One word of advice, and I am not being prejudice (nor funny), don't let your Lady touch the items with her bare hands, they do have different chemicals/oils in their systems than do males that will negate the P&P procedure.

Ted VA7YQQ
Comox, BC

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by HopCar

I use my wife's kitchen vacuum sealer to package my flares.

I'm hoping that you don't mean the ones which you keep handy for immediate usage.

[whatknot]

That's a great idea. I can't wait to try it.

[redhead]

And that's why I drop in every day.
To learn something.
Mission accomplished

[S/V Alchemy]

How is this unit powered, may I ask? Basically, if it's a big draw, I might prefer to "seal and stow" on shore power rather than inverter.

[wrwakefield]

Hey George,

As you discovered, vacuum bagging parts works really well when you use heavy duty bags.

I have found over the years that it helps to add one of the many Zrust tabs products to the bag to help prevent rust and corrosion.

I also discovered I needed to pad parts to keep the bags from getting holes over time. For padding and corrosion control I use their non-skid tool box liner to wrap around odd shaped parts before vacuum bagging. [And sometimes double vacuum bagging...]

If you have already bagged things, you can always wrap the bagged item with the non-skid and double-bag it...

Really odd shaped items [e.g. spare alternator, spare hp fuel pump for engine, etc.] sometimes require stretch wrapping the non-skid in place [which also adds padding] before vacuum bagging... [BTW, stretch wrap is invaluable on a boat... and lasts forever if protected from UV exposure since it has no adhesive to break down...

The vacuum bags with parts packaged this way seem to last longer before getting holed, and don't suffer from corrosion...

In case this is a helpful add-on to your good idea.

Cheers! Bill

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

How is this unit powered, may I ask? Basically, if it's a big draw, I might prefer to "seal and stow" on shore power rather than inverter.

You can get 12v vaccume sealers that they sell to hunters and fisherman. Larger ones need 110v.

[David B]

Originally Posted by gts1544

FOLKS,
I recently purchased a commercial grade vacuum sealer and rolls of 8" and 11" bag material ....

...and got the idea to vacuum seal the smaller items with our unit.

I hope that others will find this useful. gts1544 - George

Great idea - thanks George. I am sure many of us will benefit from this.
David

[Roaring Sixties]

Yes I can confirm the comment re females touching metallic items, When working in a Electronics Factory they found that when females were handling Transformer Windings with bare hands it resulted in the breaking down of the insulation material with failures of the transformers, apparently it was the time that the women were experiencing menstruation as the problem?