surgical tubing for gasket on a vacuum chuck?

[Roger Chandler]

Has anyone on this forum used surgical tubing for the seal on a home made vacuum chuck head?

I am in the process of building a couple.....did one today, but did not have gasket seal material yet.........was wondering how well a surgical tube would do for this purpose?

[Darryl Hansen]

Might work but the easiest material is "Foamies" available at Micheales or most any craft store. Comes with sticky back as well. About a buck a sheet.

[Roger Chandler]

Might work but the easiest material is "Foamies" available at Micheales or most any craft store. Comes with sticky back as well. About a buck a sheet.

Is foamies the actual brand name?

[Gary Max]

All I did was ask for foam sheets with sticky back----They knew what I was talking about.

[Roger Chandler]

All I did was ask for foam sheets with sticky back----They knew what I was talking about.

thanks Gary!

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Surgical tubing would be too soft. Besides, you would have to seam it into a circle and whatever you use to make the seam might not be as pliable as the tube itself. You want something you buy in a sheet. Then cut out a circle and stick it on. You will probably use your vacuum chuck as a jam chuck more than with the vacuum running. Whatever you use should be kind of tough as well as capable of securing a vacuum. I use thin neoprene without the lycra backing but the stuff Gary and Roger recommended is more popular. I've also seen people use red or black gasket material used by plumbers to make gaskets. Any closed foam pliable sheeting that is about 1/16" thick or so will work.
faust

[Bernie Weishapl]

I used closed cell foam on mine from CSUSA. Did have to use contact cement. Works well.

[Jeff Nicol]

I have used large "O" rings that I glue into a groove cut in the vac chuck rim and it works fine. You can buy the round material in rolls or lengths and use CA to glue the ends together or some of them have a hotknife system that will heat both ends at the same time and when the knife is pulled out the 2 ends are stuck together. It comes in different diameters also. It is always funn to try different things.

Have fun,

Jeff