Vacuum Hold Down

great idea!, excellent tip, thanx!

-- if you dont have it, build it, especially when its a stupid idea

Great idea

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

will this not burn up the motor?

-- Childress Woodworks

childress
I don’t usually run it for more than a few minutes at a time. I really haven’t thougt about how that would affect the motor.

-- Emmett, from Georgia

Emmett – Great idea.

I used a similar vacuum setup on my CNC for couple years and did not kill any shop vacs. If you had a perfect seal and the shop vac design didn’t have any by pass it is theoretically possible to damage the vac. Normal shop vacs only pull 3.5” of vacuum (mercury) with the best only getting to 6”. An actual vacuum pump gets to upper 20” of vacuum.

Your wood will actually cause loss of vacuum. Use a vacuum gage on the shop vac with the tube end closed completely with rubber pad and then in the fixture shown above. You will never get the same measurement. Another test is to put a rubber seal on end of shop vac hose to if the hose actually shrinks in length due to the vacuum and then repeat with a piece of wood over the end.

Even with a shop vac it is incredible the amount of hold that is achieved, especially with the weather stripping to seal the edges. I have to think this is safer for pattern routing than a router table and you don’t have to attach the pattern to part being cut with tape or screws.

Very simple and inexpensive hose attachment. Wish I had thought of that before buying the overpriced plastic connectors.

Steve.

That is a great idea. I use a similar set up for my wood lathe to finish the bottom of the bowls. It is important to have a small inlet on the vacuum side of the work to let some air in to cool the motor. It will not affect the strength of suction much. Most home vacuums have a sliding air bleed that is easy to open.

Your jig is so simple. Well done!

Greg

Great Idea – I believe I will give that a try…

Thanks for sharing

-- Scotty - aka... SgtSnafu - Randleman NC

I like this idea. I may try it.

-- Rich, Cedar Rapids, IA - I'm a woodworker. I don't create beauty, I reveal it.

I like it to . Gonna give it a try ! You had me with cheap and simple .

So simple a cave man can do it !!! Thanks for the quick and cheap shop fixture idea, gonna give it try.

-- Rob,Gaithersburg,MD,One mans trash is another mans woodshop treasure !!

will it work on my cat ? LOL just kidding, cool idea

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

Looks good!

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker