Vacuum Chuck Finally Finished

[John Trax]

I finished up the vacuum chuck yesterday. Thank You Steve for the great tutorial! I decided to attach everything to the wall instead of a cart as others have done. I did not have any place to hide another piece of mobile equipment anyway.

I have not turned anything yet but a quick test on a bowl blank I had laying around shows the system pulling 25" Hg. The pump is from Harbor Freight, I was going to get one of the Gast pumps but this was on sale at HF and all ready to go, just plug in.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get to try it out.

[Steve Schlumpf]

John - congrats on getting your vacuum system built and operational! You will be amazed how nice it is to have total access when you go to finish off the bottom of a bowl! Have fun with it!

Just as a reference - I never pull more than 20 hg to hold a bowl. Always been a little leery of imploding a thin turning - so back off the hg just to play it safe.

Let us know what you think of the system once you have a chance to use it!

[Mike Minto]

john, nice set-up. looks a lot like mine; informal, but functional. I, too, have the HF pump, and found it to be an outstanding deal and excellent tool. Draws a really good vacuum. Larry Marley uses on of these, too. :D

[Bernie Weishapl]

Congrats on the pump. Really looks nice and functional.

[John King]

Harbor Freight has several vacuum pumps.

Which vacuum pump are you using? - John

[John Trax]

John,

They had two when I stopped in a single stage for I think $79 with $10 off and a two stage for about $140 - $150. I got the cheap one, not sure of the model number but I can check. Seems to pull plenty of vacuum on the one not really trued bowl blank I tried. I always wonder how long the HF stuff is going to last but the price was right.

[Fred Perreault]

I was wondering if someone might repost the "tutorial" that John Trax used for his vacuum chuck. I also have a Nova 1624/42 and would like to develop a chuck for my unit.
Thanks,
Fred P.

[Keith Palmer]

I was wondering if someone might repost the "tutorial" that John Trax used for his vacuum chuck. I also have a Nova 1624/42 and would like to develop a chuck for my unit.
Thanks,
Fred P.


Steve's Tutorial is here (http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=75579&highlight=vacuum+chuck+tutorial).

I have a pump I got from work, now I just need to get all the other parts and get to putting it together.