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I need to vacuum seal and compress two things together and then bake them at 300-deg F so they will bond.

Do high-temp vacuum bags exist? (silicone, etc)

I'm looking for something like these vacuum foodsaver ziplock bags, but they melt and the plastic bonds at about 280-deg F.

Ideas?

KJ7LNW
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    Do the items need to be in a vacuum or is it enough to compress them until baked without a vacuum? If you give us some more information about the objects and the process we might be able to provide more ideas. – Elmy Feb 12 '21 at 05:45
  • Its a toner transfer transparency paper pressed against copper-clad FR4 board. It needs about 280-300 deg F for a few minutes to transfer. In this video they use an iron, but it is hard to get small traces with even pressure so we plan to put it under vacuum before applying the iron: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3Za3YLwoo – KJ7LNW Feb 13 '21 at 23:30
  • You should look into Sous Vide bags, they generally require you to have your own vacuum sealer but the advantage of that is that you can make them any size you want. They are used for cooking in a hot water bath that is maintained at a reasonably high temperature. Though it wouldn't be good enough for going in the oven I don't think. – T.E.N Mar 02 '21 at 00:25

2 Answers2

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There are silicone sealable and reusable food storage bags like these that are good for over 400 degrees: Silicone Food Storage Bags Reusable (looks like this particular product isn't currently available at Amazon, but you can find similar items or they may come back into stock; at least it's clear that such products exist).

They are sealed with a channel that slides over the opening. What comes with it looks like plastic, so you would need to make a similar channel or clip out of metal or some other material that would withstand the high temperature. You would also need to figure out how to suck out the air and complete the sealing of it. It might require embedding a tube at one end of the opening, sealing the bag, evacuating it, then sealing the tube.

One other product I can think of that will take the temperature is Reynolds Oven Bags, which works in a 350F oven and comes in various sizes. Those are designed to be tied with a provided nylon string. It isn't clear how many uses you would get from a bag, but they're a lot cheaper than the silicone bags. Again, you would need to find a way to suck out the air and seal it. You could do something like wrap the opening around a tube, suck out the air, than tightly twist and tie the bag below the tube, perhaps folding the twisted area.

Creating an air-tight evacuation port in a sealable bag can be done, but is often a challenge. The OP reports a clever idea to solve this. Sous vide is a cooking method that involves sealing the food in a vacuum bag and cooking it in a water bath at a controlled temperature. Silicone bags are available for this purpose, and come with an evacuation port built-in. The OP found these Sous Vide Silicone Bags and reports that they worked.

enter image description here

fixer1234
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  • an interesting product, but high end temperature limit in the ad copy indicates 230 °F, lower than the OP requirements. – fred_dot_u Feb 12 '21 at 11:18
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    @fred_dot_u, that spec is 230 C, not F. – fixer1234 Feb 12 '21 at 11:27
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    @fixer1234, Actually I have silicone food bags, but the issue is that I need the vacuum orifice to evacuate the air. The circle in the top-right corner takes a tool like the one we have: https://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-31161370-Cordless-Handheld-Vacuum/dp/B07VSVRNFH – KJ7LNW Feb 12 '21 at 20:50
  • @fixer1234, my error. I saw no scale in the opening info, but see it now in the deep body of the advert. That's pretty impressive. – fred_dot_u Feb 13 '21 at 00:18
  • @KJ7LNW, what about stuffing a silicone bag inside a FoodSaver™ type bag, pulling the air out, then using the seal on the silicone bag to close it and remove the outer bag? – fred_dot_u Feb 13 '21 at 00:19
  • https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Silicone-Food-Storage-Kiva-World/dp/B074KJ519P good for 220 °C and not out of stock/unavailable. – fred_dot_u Feb 13 '21 at 00:21
  • @fred_dot_u, good idea. I tried that on a bag I have here, though I've not successfully gotten an air-tight seal by manipulating the inner bag since everything is so tight. I've ordered larger outer bags to see if it will help with silicone ziplock-style bags on the inside so I can squeeze them together. – KJ7LNW Feb 13 '21 at 00:54
  • The slide-lock on the Sous Vide bags cannot handle the heat, but I've had success moving the orifice of the Sous Vide bags to a zip-lock silicone bag by cutting a hole and using high-temp gasket maker to make it seal. These are the ziplock silicone bags that I spliced using the Sous Vide vacuum orifices: https://www.amazon.com/Stasher-Silicone-Reusable-Bag-Sandwich/dp/B01DZQT99I – KJ7LNW Feb 24 '21 at 01:35
  • @KJ7LNW, it might be easier to make a zip-lock slide or bag clamp for the sous vide bags than to try to transfer and adhere the port to another bag. – fixer1234 Feb 25 '21 at 02:18
  • Maybe. If only I had a mill... Actually paper binder clips around a couple pieces worked pretty well. – KJ7LNW Feb 25 '21 at 20:00
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You could use regular silicone zip-seal bags, like Stasher bags, which can sustain up to 400ºF, and then put them inside one of those vacuum-seal bags with the one-way valves, and use the valved bag like a mini vacuum chamber to vacuum the air out of the silicone bag before sealing it. People do this for sous vide cooking.

See this youtube video.

inkista
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