Back In Shop After Extensive Outdoor Work

[William Young]

Have not been on the sites as much as usual lately due to extensive outside work with carpentry and roofing and grounds work keeping me busy. Still have not had a chance to go fishing yet but hope to work that in soon. It rained this afternoon so it was a good chance to head to my shop and make my first vacuum chuck for my lathe .

Made my first vacuum chuck this afternoon and I haven't even got my vacuum chucking system here yet. Supposed to arrive by UPS around 4.00 PM tomorrow. It is coming with a 6" chuck which I thought would be too large for most of my turnings so I made a 3" diameter one to use with some plans of soon to turn projects that I think a vacuum chucking system would work good with .
It is made from a solid piece of white birch. It is pretty dense wood but I took Rick Hutchesons and painted the inside with carpenters glue to seal it just in case it was a little porous and could be the cause of some loss of vacuum like Rick has previously pointed out on WWF when showing some of his shop made vacuum chucks .

First picture is a close up view of the end showing the 1 x 8 tpi nut embedded and epoxied into the wood..



Here is a side view of the chuck . It is probably longer than necessary but it is easier to make it shorter than longer if need be. It runs true on the lathe at this length.



Here is a shot of the inside showing the glued interior walls and a closeup of the foam rim I put on with CA glue. I have read that a mouse pad has the proper closed cell foam required to prevent vacuum loss so I cut that out of one of my old mouse pads . Time will tell how well it seals.



W.Y.

EDIT
I took the gasket off of it and rounded the top edge to make it better conform to wood that was going to be applied to it . I also removed the cloth backing on the mouse pad foam just in case it would be a cause of vacuum leakage. Then I painted it black.

[Wood Dog]

Do you ever rest????? I presume the piece you are working on goes flyin if there is a suddden power loss, is that thing safe? I like the way you are always doing something different though. Good luck with your new toy.

[minowevie]

Gosh Bill, I agree, that is chancy, making a pretty part like that to fit a machine you don't have yet. if it dosen't fit, I could use it to scrue some pretty flowers into. just kidding. that is a nice part as always. your friend Evie

[Powakee]

Bill
I can empathize with you. I've been building a 2 story storage shed. We are still getting 50+ mph winds which just make me a little bit of a scardy cat when I need to get up on top of the structure to start nailing the roof paper and the roof shingles.

Your part looks real good. I bet it will work. I like it that you use the material at hand ~ it helps all of us remember that "together, we can do it ourselves!" I fabricate a fair amount of my own stuff. Lots of folks give me a hard time about making my own things and seem to suggest that if I bought it then I'd have more time to sit around and watch TV. Somehow, I just can't wrap that one around the old noggin.'

I hope the vacuum works like it is supposed to. I hope you'll keep us up to date.

John
out here in the windy desert!

[William Young]

WD;

I presume the piece you are working on goes flyin if there is a suddden power loss, is that thing safe?

I did a little research on that and apparently if there is a sudden power loss the vacuum still holds from the vacuum in the air compressor tank while the piece that is spinning on the lathe slows down seeing as the system I am going to use makes use of my air compressor and a vacuum generator . The vacuum generator doesn't even plug into electricity. Only the compressor does.
On the other hand a straight vacuum pump like some use that is run on electricity would lose its vacuum as soon as the power went off because it rums continuously to create vacuum and has no backup vacuum like I will have in my 20 gallon tank air compressor tank..
Whether I am right or wrong on that theory does not concern me all that much because I have never had the power go off while I am turning on my lathe. That's not to say it cant happen but the chances are slim. Vacuum chucking is getting very popular so I figured I might as well keep up to date so as to not get left behind.

Evie.

Gosh Bill, I agree, that is chancy, making a pretty part like that to fit a machine you don't have yet.

It does fit . I have already had it on my lathe because that was where I made it. The 1" x 8 tpi nut that is epoxied into is the same size as my 4 jaw steel chucks that fit the spindle on my lathe .

John.

I hope the vacuum works like it is supposed to. I hope you'll keep us up to date.

I also hope it works well. Here is the system that I have ordered.

Some that have never used this system talk them down simply because they have never used one. Ones that actually have them rave about how good they are . As for me I can only comment on that after it arrives and I get it hooked up . If it doesn't work good it will go back. If it works good it will be a keeper .
They will even work on the small pankake compressors so it should work fine on my 2HP , 20 gallon one.

stickfast.net
In that site click on Hold Fast Products. There is also an excellent video there that shows how it is assembled and how it works.



W.Y.

[William Young]

Got the vacuum generator and associated parts just before supper and of course I had to try it out.

Got it all hooked up and turned the inside and outside of a 12" previously rough turned green Natural Edge bowl on my regular four jaw chuck by using the tenon on the bottom left from the original rough turning. Then I removed the bowl including the chuck in tact on it and screwed that on to an adapter with 1x8 tpi threads onto my tail stock .
Then I put the vacuum chuck I made yesterday onto the headstock threads, and slid the inside of the bowl up to it and applied vacuum. It sucked it in nice and tight so I removed the chuck from the tenon on the bottom of the bowl .
That has got to be the easiest way to align a NE bowl for turning a foot. It was a first for me and I will use that method often now.



This shows the vacuum chuck holding the bowl from the inside so I could turn the tenon off and create a foot for the bowl.



Here is the bottom of the bowl and a foot formed with a little dress up.



And here is the inside of the bowl with a seal coat of BLO/MS
The odd looking lines and grain pattern are a result of using the detergent method of quick drying. That method might work well with some woods but it certainly does not work well with buckeye.



All in All I am very pleased with the vacuum chuck system that I got. It's a keeper for sure. The ones that have reported it as a very noisy piece of equipment on some sites are obviously just guessing and have no practical experience at all with it. The vacuum generator itself is practically noiseless. The only noise is from the air compressor and I have mine in a separate room so I hardly hear it either except when it cycles on for a couple minutes while turning.

W.Y.