vacuum press

[John Gregory]

Woodcraft has the 25% off on one I\item. Would this (http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=5086) be a good buy? Does anyone own one now?

Thanks
John

[Jim Becker]

Given you can pick up vacuum pumps surplus or via "that auction site" quite inexpensively, buy the hardware locally and just get the bag(s) from Joe Woodworker or another vacuum specialist, it may or may not be a good deal. While I don't have a bag setup (no veneering so far) the Gast pump I have for my vacuum chuck at the lathe cost my $174 via a surplus outfit and it was brand spanking new...same unit sells for $399 at woodworking retailers. And that's on the high end, but it was a new pump...many of these pumps go for between $50-100 used.

That said, you will not know if it's a good deal until you price the individual components as above.

[Jamie Buxton]

Yeah, for a complete system, that's a good price. I don't know of anybody selling a complete press for less. As Jim says, if you want to build your own, you can do it for less cash outlay. However, if what you want to do is to get busy on veneering, not tool-building, that'd be a good way to go.

[Cecil Arnold]

John, I built the JWW press and off the top of my head I would estimate you can save only about $75-125 by building over the WC deal.

[Steve Wargo]

I think I paid about $55 for my pump + shipping. It is a small Gast, but works fine for my applications. The bag cost me about $250 shipped to my door. Depending on your applications it may be a good deal. My bag will glue up a 50" x 100" panel.

[Clint Malone]

I got my pump for free (well, I traded some nice birdseye maple and curly maple shorts for it) and built this:

Total cost for all the parts was less than $200. The pump is a 1/2 HP Gast rotary vane and does about 7.5 CFM.

I made my own bag using the JWW plan, but now that I need a bigger one, I decided to order one from http://www.tapeease.com/vacuum_bags.htm

The new ones I ordered are the poly ones because I bought them for Bent Laminations, but the Vinyl ones are fine for flat stuff and pretty reasonably priced.

Veneering is fun, you will love it no matter how you decide to do it. My only hesitation is that the pump that comes with that one is kind of puny and won't work well for larger pieces or bent laminations. My first pump was the JWW venturi model and it was fine for small flat pieces but very LOUD!

[Matt Meiser]

You might want to check with Woodcraft on that particular item. I thought power tools are excluded, and this appears to have a cord. ;) If you can use the coupon, I'd say that's a good deal and will save you a lot of time over putting your own system together.

[John Gregory]

I got it. $339 less 25%($84.75) = $254 And I had a tool I had purchased a month ago and never used. So I returned it. ($85) So about $170 out of pocket for the system. It should work ok for my use.

Thanks for the input
John

[Jim Becker]

Excellent shopping, John!! I think you got an awesome deal in retrospect!

[Steve Stube]

Good for you John but I never knew a toolaholic to RETURN a tool, any tool.

Clint, welcome to SMC! I guess you vacuum pump is pretty strong as it sucked the paint right off the tank:-))

[John Gregory]

Good for you John but I never knew a toolaholic to RETURN a tool, any tool.

Clint, welcome to SMC! I guess you vacuum pump is pretty strong as it sucked the paint right off the tank:-))

I had bought a 1" belt sander to sharpen my turning tools. But for Christmas we got a Wolverine system. So the sander was not needed. I already have a Ridgid spindle/belt sander and a Delta 12" disc sander. I was going to return the 1" belt sander anyway, I am excited to do some vacuum pressing.

John