Vacuum Bagging Starter Kit - Film, Peel Ply, Breather, Tape, Connector & Hose

A first vacuum bag, complete and correctly sized, minus the pump. Three yards each of the three consumables so you get several real parts out of it rather than one test panel, two rolls of tape, the machined aluminum through-bag connector, and ten feet of thick-wall hose with the adapters and clamps to connect it.

What is in the kit:

• 3 yards of 110" nylon vacuum bagging film
• 3 yards of 60" peel ply release fabric
• 3 yards of 60" 4 oz breather cloth
• Two 25 ft rolls of sealant tape
• Aluminum through-bag vacuum connector, 1/4 in NPT
• 10 ft of 3/8 in ID vacuum hose, 1/8 in wall
• Two brass hose barb adapters and two stainless hose clamps
• Printed setup and leak-hunting guide

How a bag works. Peel ply goes straight onto the wet laminate and releases clean, leaving a texture you can bond or paint over without sanding. Breather goes over the peel ply and is what lets vacuum reach the whole bag instead of just the area near the port. Film goes over everything, sealed to the mold with tape. Leave slack. A bag pulled tight bridges corners and that is where parts go dry.

Hose wall, not braid. Vacuum fails by buckling, which wall thickness resists. Braid carries internal pressure, which is the opposite problem. This hose is 1/8 in wall, the same wall the big composites houses ship in kits costing several times this.

Want to know your bag is actually sealed? Add the Vacuum Control Manifold. A gauge and a shut-off valve let you close the bag off, kill the pump, and watch the needle. That five minute test is the difference between a part and a lesson. The Pro Kit is this kit with the manifold already in it.

Pump not included, and that is deliberate. A good HVAC vacuum pump costs about a hundred dollars and pulls deeper than pumps sold through composites channels for many times that. Buy the one you like.

Which pumps this connects to. Two fittings are included and between them they cover almost everything sold:

• 1/4 in SAE flare port — every HVAC service pump has one (VEVOR, BACOENG, Mastercool, Robinair and the rest). Larger models add 3/8 SAE and 1/2 ACME ports, but none of them omit the 1/4 SAE, so the included flare adapter fits them all.
• 1/4 in NPT port — oilless, diaphragm and dry vane pumps (Gast, Thomas and similar) thread directly onto the included brass barb, no adapter needed.

The exceptions are rare and cheap to solve: a few small Gast and Thomas models use 1/8 in NPT and some industrial pumps use 3/8 in NPT, either of which needs a bushing from any hardware store. Home-built fridge-compressor pumps have a bare copper stub and you are on your own there. Check your pump's port before ordering if it is not an HVAC pump.

Room temperature cure only. PVC hose softens near boiling, so do not run this into an oven with vacuum connected.