We find that most of the places that Vac-Clamps are being used are with wood or wood products. The results are rather good.
The clamps do struggle a bit with low quality MDF and of course if the wood has a knot hole, but usually the clamps hold very well.
One of the vac-clamp users works 2 VC4 clamps on his CNC router. He cuts out bed components from veneered MDF. We also have more than a few working pinus radiata with excellent results on the clamps. 2 clamps works very well with support blocks on very large pieces. We will post some pictures on the website to show this
The face seal can be sized to hold small pieces (minimum size 50mm x 100mm, 2" x 4"), and the double sided can be put anywhere on a table or bench.
No moving parts inside the unit to wear out or break down gives you the reliablility, and the seal is replaceable.
At 6,000 feet elevation the air pressure drop will give a reduced performance, but not as much as you might think. We did some calcualtions and found out that at the top of Mount Everest (29,000ft, 8,845metres) the performance would be halved, due to the reduced ambient air pressure.
We will be attending the AWFS fair in Las Vegas (27th til 30th July) and will be demonstrating the clamps there (booth 12362). Come along and have a look and see for yourself.
Errol  |