If anyone is interested in setting up a vacuum table hold down system, this is working very good and didn’t cost a fortune. I picked up the 5 HP pump used for $200 on marketplace, the air filter on eBay for $150, plastic pipe $50 (I had the electric parts is stock but switch and breaker add $75).
Easy to make pods for different applications and the gasket material was an Amazon purchase. I also pick up cheap cork stoppers to zone off areas.
This works a well as a large commercial set up for a fraction of the cost.
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Killer deal on that pump!
I am surprised that the relatively small area that the vacuum acts on is sufficient to hold the work piece. You have the central round area and the air channels and that seems to be it unless the seal on the very outside of the work piece elevates the work piece a bit in which case the vacuum would act on the entire area inside the outer seal. Since this likely would cause the work piece to deform a bit, I doubt that this would be the case.
thanks for posting the pictures - very interesting!
Larger commercial routers have a grid over the entire surface. I consider doing this but didn’t think it necessary. The gasket goes completely flat when the vacuum is on.
That is interesting … thinking a bit more about this, since MDF is porous to air flow, it makes sense that the vacuum acts on the entire ‘pod’ surface.
Is the spoil board sealed on any of it’s surfaces (think underside and edges)?
Care to post a link to the gasket material?
That is the way the larger units work. They just drop a full sheet on their grid and the vacuum pulls right through it. This only work for sheet material or larger laminated panels. I only have 5 HP. Not sure if it’s enough suction to do that. The bigger machines run 10-15 HP hydrovane pumps
I don’t remember exactly what gasket I purchased but it’s just round rubber seal/gasket material. You can usually chose diameter and density
I think the key to this working is that he’s surfaced the paper off the top and sealed the edges with something. Just lay plastic on the top where your project is not, and you’ll get much more suction under your part.
Ideally the bottom spoil board should be completely sealed and the top one should be have top and bottom milled and edges sealed.