Vacuum Chuck

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keithkarl2007

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Apr 22, 2008
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Has anyone built their own vacuum chuck for reverse turning bowls and platters? I wanted to get a breakdown on the parts needed to build one. Any that I have found online show the whole system built.
 
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Google utube. I have enjoyed a lot of them. Have fun. This is part of the big (to me) (vacuum-chuck/stablizing) prodject I am looking forwards to.
 
Has anyone built their own vacuum chuck for reverse turning bowls and platters? I wanted to get a breakdown on the parts needed to build one. Any that I have found online show the whole system built.

Built all of mine from 2" ABS couplings to 10" sewer pipe. Just need a backing plate to fit your lathe and a good 1" dense backing disk and your off. Whatever you use for your backing disk just make sure you seal all of the exposed surfaces. (they leak if you don't)

Lin.
 
I made mine using a threaded rod through the headstock spindle, modeled after one like this:


http://www.packardwoodworks.com/Mer...e=110902&Category_Code=lathes-acc-vc-holdfast

I found a plastic tubing connector that I press fit into a bearing, and made a wooden cone to recess the bearing so it would center on the hand wheel. A piece of lamp rod is threaded into the other end of wooden cone and fed through the headstock spindle.

For the chucks, I use a 1-1/4"x8 nut epoxied into a hex hole cut into a piece of MDF, and faced the MDF with a piece of corian, and a piece of PVC SCH 40 pipe epoxied in a groove cut in the corian, and a piece a craft foam stuck to the front edge of the PVC pipe. The corian face has a hole drilled and tapped to accept the free end of the lamp rod, connecting the rod to the chuck.

For vacuum pumps, you want as high of an air flow rate as possible to overcome the air flow through the wood as you turn. You won't need as high of a vacuum rating as you would for stabilizing. If you want to use the vacuum pump for both vacuum chucking and stabilizing, you may need to compromise based on your priorities.

Good luck

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I built mine to use with my shop vac... I have a friend who threaded a block of MDF for me, I glued that to a MDF disc and covered the disc with a closed foam pad... ran a threaded lamp rod through the spindle hole and fitted a bearing on the end and recessed into the disc... then used a length of clear plastic tubing that fit over the end of the lamp rod and into a wood plug that fits into the intake port of the shop vac... works pretty good if the bowl is solid... I've lost one that had a crack I didn't see and the shop vac couldn't pull enough vacuum to hold it in place.
 
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