Vacuum Holddown for corian/lithos...

[Arbo]

I have been cutting a lot of lithophanes recently, and I am kinda tired of gluing these things down then risking breaking them getting them back up. And of course cleaning the glue off.

So I sat down and drew up a small vacuum box, thinking I have a vacuum setup for bagging wings and such, perhaps it will work.

Two pieces of .75 MDF. Top one has holes drilled in, bottom a little bigger (will clamp the bottom to the table) with areas for the air to flow.

Then found a fitting, had to melt shut one end of the T as it was all I had... Glued it in. Will coat the whole bottom piece with epoxy to seal it against air leaks, then glue on the top piece and seal it as well.

Then will use some sticky back hard rubber I have and outline the wholes and criss cross them for support and a good seal so nothing slips.

I hooked the vacuum up to the t and just sat a piece of corian over the channels on the bottom piece... at 10hg I could lift the whole thing by the edges of the corian... my system will go up to about 23hg, so I think I should be good.

[ger21]

If your rubber forms a seal around the perimeter, you'd get the same results with 1 hole, as long as you don't isolate it. The area inside the seal dictate's the amount of vacuum, not the number of holes.

[Arbo]

Oh, I know, but I am going to criss cross the rubber so I can put smaller pieces on it as well (and of course cover the other holes).

Coated it all with finishing resin. It is pretty thin and soaks into the MDF and seals it pretty good.