Another Vacuum Chuck

[Nick Mastropietro]

I finally finished building my vacuum chuck, I got the Thomas pump from e-bay for $70.00 shipped, the rest of the hardware I bought from McMaster-Carr. It is approterate to give Steve Schlumpf the credit for the design. I used it to construce this setup. Overall I believe I have about $200.00 in the system if I include the vacuum chucks I picked up from Redmond Machinery at 50% off.

[Nick Mastropietro]

Spun up to about 800 rpm and holds great.

[Tim Rinehart]

The bar has now been set higher for you to produce some exceptional work on the bottom of your turnings with no evidence of centers being carved/chipped off.

Realizing of course, that the only ones who look at the bottom are usually other woodturners.

Hey, enjoy. Vacuum chucking sure makes life easier on natural edge bowls especially. One tip I've found, is that it helps to use some sanding sealer/shellac on pieces that are quite porous to help prevent leakage through pores of wood.

Also, did you get a morse adapter to allow you to mount your chuck into the tailstock to help line things up?

[David E Keller]

Congrats. Looks like a nice set-up.

[Nick Mastropietro]

Dave - Tim thanks for the responses and the good tip concernng the sealer. Yes I do have a morse taper to mount the chuck.
Thanks again

[Tim Rinehart]

Congrats. Looks like a nice set-up.

Looking at that setup, reminds me a of a control panel in a race car or something...makes mine look like a Soap Box Derby car! Hmmm, maybe if I drop a V-8 in that Soap Box Car....

Really is a nicely built setup. I think that's what sets some of us apart. When it comes to making carts, rigs, jigs, etc...there are clear showings of the ones who have done some really nice cabinet and other furniture, and the rest of us just cob something together that works...but ain't pretty. I'd be in the latter camp.

[Rich Aldrich]

That really sucks. Nice set up.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Your system looks great Nick! You're going to love using it! Nice work!

[Ray Bell]

It looks very nice Nick. What did you use for the chuck, the black thing in the last picture?

[John Keeton]

Nick, very impressive, and a saved thread for me!! I see one of these in my future someday. Perhaps the thing to do is to begin watching for the parts and slowly accumulating what is needed. Thanks for the pic spread, and thanks to Steve for helping out. I suspect I ultimately will tap Steve for more info as well.

Not knowing anything about these things, if one built a system for a particular lathe, and later changed lathes (not that I ever would!), what items are lathe specific and what is the approximate cost of those items?

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking vac chuck Nick.

[Thom Sturgill]

<snip>Not knowing anything about these things, if one built a system for a particular lathe, and later changed lathes (not that I ever would!), what items are lathe specific and what is the approximate cost of those items?

John, if you buy the parts from JT Turning Tools, the only part that is machine specific is his custom hand wheel. He sells the hand wheel with his vacuum adapter, but the adapter fits all of the hand wheels, and he does sell them separately.

The only other thing is the chuck itself. I made my own chucks for the Jet 1220 (1"-8tpi) and they don't fit the Jet 1642 (1 1/4" - 8tpi). I could drill them out and rethread, but its easy, and not very expensive to just build new ones.

Nick, Nice looking mount for the gauge!! Reminds me of some 'steam punk' stuff.

[Baxter Smith]

Looks great! Thats on my someday list!

[Nick Mastropietro]

John, in responce to your questions - Thoms got it right, It's primarily the handwheel.

[bob svoboda]

Looks good Nick.