Lance Lt30 Vacuum Tumbler Retrofits

[Ulma Doctor]

when we marinate at home, generally it stays pretty much on the outside of the cut of meat.
the vacuum tumbler is used in the meat industry to vacuum impregnate meats with marinades.
the process is very quick.
in a couple hours under vacuum, the marinate actually gets inside the product.
it works fantastically well.
there are many different manufacturers of these machines.

i get to work on some real doosies sometimes, this week has been no contradiction to that.
i had a customer who wanted a Lance LT30 Vacuum Tumbler & Marinator, to be brought back from the dead.
they had a couple "technicians"(read:hacks) make feeble attempts at repair to the poor beast.
but their attempts were in vain.
3 others failed , before i was to succeed:
the previous saboteurs didn't really have much luck in repairing the poor old unit.
when i showed up to see the wretch, it was really a mess.
it's supposed to:
1: draw a vacuum
2: have motor speed control, forward and reverse
3: the tumbler must have a jog function, forward and reverse
4: tumbler must also have a continuous push button run function
5: the tumbler must have optical safety interrupt
6: vacuum pump must be push button for continuous operation

it did none of these things upon arrival, so i gave them the bad news that it was coming with me. after a haggle over the expense, the owner wished to restore only part of the machine's capabilities.
i don't like leaving things undone but if the guy says he doesn't want or need it, i wont give it!

the vacuum pump was MIA, the controls were disconnected, jumped,spliced, and taped together in a mess that would make spaghetti jealous.

rather than try to fix stupid, i gutted the entire control, DC motor control system and optical safety system and designed one of my liking.
i removed every control component and piece of wire and started at square 1.

i first ran the DC control circuit, i used a KBMM 125 DC controller for the lesson 1/2 hp DC motor that turns the tumbler chamber.
i installed a new vacuum pump and plumbed and wired it in.
then ran all the individual wires to 4 control relays, 4 momentary control switches, 2 maintained contact control switches, potentiometer, & 2 optical safety switches.


a closer look at the completed retrofit





here is a video of the machine during the operational test

here is some product, 4 tri tip's vacuum tumbled/marinated @23"Hg- for 30 minutes!



as always thanks for reading, watching, and commenting!

 

[sgisler]

Hmm, would like to have one of those at home...


Stan,
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Hi Stan,
thanks for looking, they really are great!
there are smaller units available that have 30# capacities.

i'm toying with the idea of making small units for our members, if there was interest.

 

[kvt]

That would be great for doing my briskets and such for smoking and BBQing. and a lot faster than just putting them in soaking them for a day or two. By the way nice work. you should have taken a pic of the hack jobs done before you got it.

 

[chips&more]

What about using one of those Seal A Meal things to marinate the meat in a vacuum? Maybe have a problem keeping the marinade in the plastic bag and not sucked out when the machine was doing its thing. Just a thought, what if you put an object in the bag with the meat and marinade. The job of the object would be to keep an open space during the vac and seal. Then the marinade would not get all sucked out...Dave.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

That would be great for doing my briskets and such for smoking and BBQing. and a lot faster than just putting them in soaking them for a day or two. By the way nice work. you should have taken a pic of the hack jobs done before you got it.

Hi Ken,
thanks for the kind words and thanks for reading !
these machines work great on just about any kind of meat.
i didn't even really plan to make a thread from this repair, it was an afterthought.
once i got the thing running again is when the idea to write about it hit me.
i'll try to keep that in consideration when doing this stuff...

What about using one of those Seal A Meal things to marinate the meat in a vacuum? Maybe have a problem keeping the marinade in the plastic bag and not sucked out when the machine was doing its thing. Just a thought, what if you put an object in the bag with the meat and marinade. The job of the object would be to keep an open space during the vac and seal. Then the marinade would not get all sucked out...Dave.

Hi Dave, always good to hear from you!
i have used the Seal A Meal many times for exactly that.
to remedy the marinade from getting sucked out , simply elevate the Seal A Meal on a thick book to keep the liquid level below the sealing bar.
there is a small channel in the S A M, that helps to orient the bags opening in a vertical posture as a secondary line of defense
you need only to watch the bag to cut off the vacuum if the marinade migrates toward the vacuum source.
if you notice, the S A M bags are textured on the inside.
this texturing allows the bag to pass volumes of air past the voids created when the 2 textured surfaces interface.
there is no need for any other objects in the bag when using these specially designed bags, but of course, if you were tying to utilize a run of the mill bag your method would be spot on!.
thanks for reading!