Vacuum Table Setup ?? Advice 24"x24" Area

[Robert Bonenfant]

Im looking for some advise on making or buying a vacuum table and pump. We have a customer that needs 1/4 MDF and Baltic birch parts ranging for 12" - 22".
The contract would be worth atleast 5k profit so im willing to invest some money into the table

smallest size table would be 2'x2' - Largest 4'x8'
What size pump should I look at for a 2'x2' table ??
Anyone know of any single phase pumps that would work?
Should we go with a metal base or make one from MDF?
Should we Use a spoiler board (Light Weight Fiber Baord?) ?

We have done some hobby setups with a basic shop vac but they tend to be very ineffective for holding down smaller parts.
Some of the 12" Parts are in the shape of a "I" - They measure 12" but at its smallest point its around a 4 inches wide.

Any help would be great

[Mick A Martin]

In my option vacuum tables are great for large sheet good, if you are doing small stuff then you have to cover unused vacuum area. Check out http://www.blackboxvac.com/index.html I have the Hurricane on a 5'x8' table a divided into 2' zones. The "The Storm" should work on your size machine if you decided to go that direction. All there vacuum pumps work on 220V single Phase.

[Jerome Stanek]

If the parts are always the same shape and size I would make a dedicated vacuum fixture and you wouldn't need much of a vacuum. A small Gast unit would be plenty and you wouldn't have to worry about burning up the vacuum motors like the ones on a Hurricane or storm. A Gast will run all day long as that is what they are built to do

[David Somers]

Robert,

I was just at a session with the folks from Legacy and they had an interesting Vacuum setup. The table was for their Maverick system which has a smaller bed. 2 x 4 I think is its normal size. But this would work for a smaller setup. The vacuum was based on either a Fein or a Festool vacuum. Those have 2 motors in them. One drives the vacuum, the other cools the vacuum motor. Typical shop vacs only have 1 motor and rely on air passing through the Vacuum to cool the system so you can overheat and burn out the motor if you try to use it as a vacuum source for a table.

They had a sheet of 3/4 inch medium density MDF with a grid of 2 inch squares routed onto it. The grid lines were 3/8 wide x 3/8" deep. They had the outer edge of the grid filled with a 3/8" round sponge rubber weatherstripping as the seal. Shorter lengths of the weather stripping could be used to dam off sections of the table depending on how much of it you needed to work with. The mdf was sealed with lacquer on the top and sides so it was relatively impervious to air flow through the MDF. They used a shower drain drilled into the front right corner of the MDF for the vacuum to pull through. The underside of the drain accepted the end fitting of the vacuum hose nicely.

So for many pieces you simply lay out the weather stripping in the grid including the shower drain to dam off the size area you wanted the vacuum to apply to. Easy to move it around.

The really interesting thing they did though was to have a 1/2 inch sheet of low density mdf that they dropped onto the top of the table. It was the same size as the medium density board above. This was not sealed. So the vacuum air flow pulled right through the low density mdf and created a very respectable pull through it. To limit the area the vacuum pulled through they used either some formica, sheets of visqueen, any material that would not let air flow through it. They used these pieces to lay on top of the low density MDF, leaving only the area you needed to use with the vacuum exposed. You laid your workpiece on that, did your cutting or engraving and it held beautifully. The nice things was that you were not worried if you cut into the 1/2 MDF because the entire exposed area was pulling through it. You could expose a very significant area and still not ruin the pull of the vacuum.

This was a very simple, cost effective way to make a vacuum table that was quite versatile and easy to setup and tear down.

I would need to dig up the reference, but I believe you can get the design of this from their web site. Check it out and see if it might work for you.

Dave

[AL Ursich]

I currently use 1/4 inch strips of double stick tape to hold thin FRP to a carrier board to cut sheet stock into tags on my hobby CarveWright. I have a Vacuum Carrier board sled in the works that used the mushroom shaped screw hole plugs in a 1 inch grid on a base board. Then a thin sheet of hardboard is dropped on top of it with the mushroom heads making the air space. I drill a hole in the hardboard for each tag to be held in place. With a few sizes and shapes of tags I would have a selection of hardboard tops ready to drop on the carrier. I bought a Veneer Vacuum Pump that I believe will work since my work area on the sled is only 12 x 24 inches.

For your 24 x 24 inch hold down the Mushroom idea might be GREAT as you could make different hardboard tops as more projects are developed.

I have a 600 tag end of year order in the works for a Oil Refinery Lock Out Tag Out key control. Used tape for that batch as the sled is not ready yet. Just did a Accountability Tag order for them for the Employee Fire Department.

AL

[Kevin L. Waldron]

Something like this works great for small parts........ although you can't cut through.

Blessings,

kevinVacuum Board.jpg

[Bruce Page]

Kevin, please tell us more about your table.

[Kevin L. Waldron]

We have made several of these not sure if this was one of ours or one we purchased............ here is a company that carries this product and has many accessories and videos....... one can use Phenolic Material if your unable to cut aluminum...... you just need something stable and something that will allow for a chamber that will hold under pressure.........

http://clampusystems.com/index.html

Blessings,

Kevin

[AL Ursich]

Great site... took note of the Moisture Traps.... That is something I did not think of... Bet it would mess up my vacuum pump....

Thanks for that post.

AL

[Bruce Page]

Thanks for the link Kevin, there's some great info in there.