Low cost vaccuum chuck

Hello Bob,

I've had the Vicmarc Vacuum Plate for a couple of years. It works very well for larger bowls. It is designed to work with a regular house vacuum system, but it works great with my little one gallon shop vacuum, which has a smaller hose to mate with the vacuum plate. I'm sure it would work with a regular shop vacuum if you simply came up with an adapter to fit the chuck.

It cannot handle natural edge bowls unless they are larger than the plate, which I think is 11-1/2" in diameter, maybe 12".

I believe that Craft Supplies USA is selling them with a recommendation that you glue a wooden disk to the front of the plate. You can then cut grooves in the plate to fit sections of PVC pipe with a sealer on one end. Then you have virtually all of the capabilities of the other chucks.

I consider it an excellent buy.

Fred Holder

Make your own.

Its not hard, all you need is an appropriately sized disk of MDF or plywood, and some thin closed cell rubber.

Try this link, it might help.

,Take the "ways of mounting wood" link, adn then the "vacume chuck" option.

I use a auto airconditioning pump, but an ordinary vacume cleaner is more than enough for anything over about 6" diameter, and it has the advantage over the air conditioning pump, of being high volume, so leaks are not that important.

Rex

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Hi, I'm not sure the shop vac is such a good idea. With the vacuum chuck, the input to the vac is essentially blocked. Most of the shop vac styles have the motor in the exhaust air flow. This gives them a cooling source of air flow. I'm not sure how they would hold up under a prolonged period with no cooling available.

Anyone else have any stats on shop vacs being used in that sort of environment?

Ken Moon Webberville, TX

The site quoted, explains all that. You must have a bleed vent to let a certain amount of air through irrespective of the holding power.

This system is widely used in our guild andI have yet to see a single vaacume die because of over heating, if they are set up properly.

Block the flow completely (Not what you are supposed to do) and the things die in about 10 minutes MAX.

Rex

The Fein Turbo III (maybe all the Feins too) works well because there is another source built into it for the motor cooling/exhaust.

- Andrew

yet again, I'll suggest (for those who are new) to look at my article on this subject at

in the tips section. I think it will tell you what you need to know.

Personally, I don't like the shop vac approach because it can't hold smaller pieces effectively, but it will be fine for a 12 inch platter, for example, if you allow enough surface area