[osdhillon]

Hi
Everybody

I am looking into buying a Vacuum table (5' X 10'). Can anybody guide me to the source. I have oil sealed liquid ring 27" HG pump. My machine is done and vacuum table is the next challenge. Your help is appreciated.

thanks

[ger21]

What's the CFM for your pump? I'm not sure where you can find one, but commercial routers use pumps with very high CFM.

[osdhillon]

Deckker built 200 CFM 15 HP 460 V. Hope that helps. Even if somebody can help in constructing one which can with stand such a pressure is appreciated.

thanks

[Geof]

Is it your plan to buy or make a table just for straight vacuum hold down of such things as plastic or aluminum or also capable of doing spoil board work? The difference, as I understand it, is that straight vacuum can just use fairly small channels in the table surface but spoil board needs the table to have high volume flow capability in the form of either large channels in the surface or a plenum below the table surface. Also do you plan on having a one piece 5 x 10 table or something that can be "tiled" in smaller sections?

I plan on making a 5 x 10 spoil board capable table for a Haas Gantry Router and have not decided yet whether it will be one piece or tiled. My machine already has a standard aluminum table and the vacuum table would go on top when needed. I would prefer a one piece table but so far I have not found any aluminum plate supplier that has 5' x 10' plate in 3/4" or 1" thickness. My initial thought was to get two pieces, machine the plenum space on one face of each piece, bolt the two together, face what will be the bottom, bolt it down onto the standard table, face the top and then machine all the channels for gaskets, etc. There would be a few extra details such as outlet ports for the vacuum but I am planning on using compressed air venturi vacuum generators with a hulking great compressor so my plenum will be exhausted from both ends of the table probably in something like four zones. There will be a bolt down hole pattern that matches a tapped hole pattern I am putting in the standard table.

So far I have got to the point of locating a suitable vacuum venturi and am just recovering from realising how much 120 square feet of 1 inch aluminum will cost. Fortunately I do not have to worry about machining cost because my machine can do all of that.

Does it sound like we are both pointing in more or less the same direction?

[CNC Darren]

you might want to try here: http://www.gpiparts.com/prod58.htm altho they are aimed at silkscreen presses its just a basic aluminum hold down table. One press we have at work has a 6x16' table and we print 3/4" mdf and ply all the time on it all the time tho printing is really a downward force on the wood rather than a side load.

Darren

[Geof]

Darren;
Thanks for that link I had not come across printing equipment vacuum tables. I do wish they would give something a bit more explanatory than "perfectly flat" and I want them to describe some specifications not say they will make it to mine. I don't know if mine make any sense!

[CNC Darren]

Most I belive are just square aluminum tubing around the edge and skinned with aluminum with a aluminum honeycomb structure in the middle. I think they just take the dimentions of your current table(if you had one) and amke one to match it. did you see the literature pdf link? that shows you what mesurements they need to make a table.

Darren