Lazurus
Established Member
Well, having got a 4 cfm vacuum pump for my resin vacuum chamber I decided to have a go at a vacuum chuck to suit my VB. A pleasant weekend tinkering in the workshop has a system up and running and 3 sizes of chuck and a 16" faceplate to.
I decided not to go for the lamp rod through the headstock as the VD has a bored spindle with 22mm outboard and a 3MT inboard, I I turned a copy of the oneway rotary adaptor out of delrin, with a 10mm bore bearing fitted, this in turn had a 1/4 bsp hose fitting epoxied into it. A suitable manifold including gauge was a simple task following several You Tube videos. I fitted this to the headstock and cut a neat hole into the end cover to allow access for fitting whilst keeping the safety cut outs in place, attached the pump and put my chubby paw over the inboard side of the shaft. Well straight off it was pulling 25 inches of mercury, there is a very slight leak through the bearing but even when blocked off only upped it by a couple of inches, and I would rather have a little flow through to the pump for cooling. so that went very smoothly.
I made up direct fitting chucks out of oak with solvent weld pipe fittings of 3, 5 and 6" diameter for the cupchucks, and a 18" faceplate. I used closed cell foam for gaskets, put it all together and viola, a fully working vacuum system for less than £30 excluding the pump. I would post some images but have given up on that.
So even with the quirky VB36 chuck fitting it can be done on a budget, I was quoted over £500 for commercial items so the savings are obvious, with the added satisfaction of doing it myself and getting a good, powerful vacuum which is easily and safely controlled via the manifold.
Stuart
I decided not to go for the lamp rod through the headstock as the VD has a bored spindle with 22mm outboard and a 3MT inboard, I I turned a copy of the oneway rotary adaptor out of delrin, with a 10mm bore bearing fitted, this in turn had a 1/4 bsp hose fitting epoxied into it. A suitable manifold including gauge was a simple task following several You Tube videos. I fitted this to the headstock and cut a neat hole into the end cover to allow access for fitting whilst keeping the safety cut outs in place, attached the pump and put my chubby paw over the inboard side of the shaft. Well straight off it was pulling 25 inches of mercury, there is a very slight leak through the bearing but even when blocked off only upped it by a couple of inches, and I would rather have a little flow through to the pump for cooling. so that went very smoothly.
I made up direct fitting chucks out of oak with solvent weld pipe fittings of 3, 5 and 6" diameter for the cupchucks, and a 18" faceplate. I used closed cell foam for gaskets, put it all together and viola, a fully working vacuum system for less than £30 excluding the pump. I would post some images but have given up on that.
So even with the quirky VB36 chuck fitting it can be done on a budget, I was quoted over £500 for commercial items so the savings are obvious, with the added satisfaction of doing it myself and getting a good, powerful vacuum which is easily and safely controlled via the manifold.
Stuart
