My Taig Mill Vac Jig

[fretsman]

This is a vac jig I just completed for engraving some parts
that I make. As you can see it is a basic vac pump that has a filter,
vac gage and connects via the coil hose to a ball valve which is
connected to the jig I've made. The jig consists of a hollowed out
base with an o-ring groove and o-ring to seal to the top plate when
installed.

The top plate has a nesting cavity with it's own o-ring to hold the
parts I make (triangle with holes) for engraving. This allows a nice
quick change from one part to the next. What's nice about this setup
is the fact that I can make more top plates and interchange them from
one style of part to the next via dowel pins for location each top
plate.

I'm so please with the way this works and thanks to those who helped out with this!

[tikka308]

Fretsman - this looks great!! Job well done. I'm surprised this post isn't getting more attention.

Are you happy with the seal tension? What kind of cuts are you taking?

[warrenb]

Awesome. Great work

[fretsman]

Thanks, fellas, it's working great. Tikka, yes, I'm extremely happy with its sealing ability as I don't have to use 2 faced tape or screw it down to a block, or clamp them. Just turn the vac on, run the part, turn the vac off, switch to a new part, and run again. As for cuts, I'm not taking a lot at all, it's used for engraving the triangle shaped parts.

I actually will be milling out another (different shaped) pocket in the same top fixture plate as to be able to do those shaped parts as well. Hence the reason I put the first part so close to one edge. Kind of dumb to do one part in each fixture plate if you have the room! lol!!

I'm now working on a vacuum grid table that will give me more flexibility in doing flat rectangles and similarly shaped parts.

Thanks again-

[recordist]

YEAH - sweet idea, having the interchangeable top plate!

What thickness top plate are you using (3/4?)? Do you get much deflection from the opening in the center of that base pocket? If so, maybe just cut some channels in a base plate (say, like a tic-tac-toe grid) for the vacuum to follow, leaving lots of support, and no room for concavity...

What are your o-rings - probably existing o-rings trimmed to length and linked with a loop of scotch tape? That's what we did (plastics shop). We occasionally MADE some from scratch, but generally way too much work for what it was worth.

Again - very nice!

[fretsman]

Originally Posted by recordist YEAH - sweet idea, having the interchangeable top plate! What thickness top plate are you using (3/4?)? Do you get much deflection from the opening in the center of that base pocket? If so, maybe just cut some channels in a base plate (say, like a tic-tac-toe grid) for the vacuum to follow, leaving lots of support, and no room for concavity... What are your o-rings - probably existing o-rings trimmed to length and linked with a loop of scotch tape? That's what we did (plastics shop). We occasionally MADE some from scratch, but generally way too much work for what it was worth. Again - very nice!

Thanks, the top plates are 3/16ths and I get no deflection at all as I'm only pulling a low amount of vacuum. However that tic tack toe setup would work great for a thin plastic top plate if one were to be used.

The O rings are 1/16th viton material and slit and resized and then a dab of CA glue puts them back together nicely.

Thanks again for the kind words-

[fretsman]

Made a new addition to my vac setup recently. It's a vac grid base made from nylatron (free) with 1/8th" slots milled to allow an O-ring gasket to be used for flat materials. I will be adding side and end plates to be able to "butt" up against the material so that the material can't move laterally in any way which will make it handy for dusting the surface of the material or engraving.

[tauntdesigns]

I love the design..... Great work!

Back in the Day....... We would mount our hose and fittings opposite of yours. We mounted the rigid hardware (Valve, gage, etc) on the pump end and ran the hose all the way to the fixture with a quick release fitting. (6 of one, half a dozen other)

Again, I like it!
Cheers,
Jack

[fretsman]

Thanks, Jack, I appreciate the kind words.

The reason for the ballvalve at the jig is so I can just turn off the vac at the jig and pull out the part that was just machined and then put in the next one. I do want to make some "thumb" slots to be able to remove the parts a little easier.

Indeed though, 6 one way, half a dozen another...lol!

Thanks,
Dave

[tauntdesigns]

Originally Posted by fretsman The reason for the ballvalve at the jig is so I can just turn off the vac at the jig and pull out the part that was just machined and then put in the next one. I do want to make some "thumb" slots to be able to remove the parts a little easier.

I actually like your design better.
Those fittings just look huge on a small machine.

Jack

[fretsman]

lol! Indeed they do!

[RiseUp]

Wow, that looks great! I read WAY more than I post, but I wanted to give you props for some nice work. What's the usable area on it? I'm making one almost exactly like yours, with an area of 12"x12".