[czwalga]

I'm building a vacuum table specifically for small parts. This table will be used for nothing but these parts. 32"x48". I'm trying to get as many shapes as possible out of the material.

I'm using 1/8" acrylic. 1/8 diameter acrylic bit.



I made a table, and drilled 5 holes in each piece. I'm not getting nearly the suction I need to hold these parts down. I'm running into the situation of lowering the feedrate causes melting but, too high feed rate causes parts to snap off before completing. The first picture is what I have. The 2nd image is what I'm thinking of doing, but i'm not sure itll be any better? 3rd pic is to show how extreme the process is going for no waste material.


I'm open to suggestions on how to make this work; short of buying a laser.



Attachment 245072

[aarggh]

I'm really having trouble working out what it is exactly your doing, and what you have done so far.

You say you made a table, and then drilled five holes in each piece? Do I understand correctly that you've simply drilled 5 holes in your table through with you've attached vacuum hoses?

Are you using rubber to seal off the areas you want the vacuum?

It might be an idea to actually describe the construction of your vacuum table and setup, so others can make more educated remarks, as normally even a crap old house vacuum can generate quite good vacuum holding pressure.

cheers, Ian