Re: [DIY-CNC] Clamping Fixture

Hi Victor;

Vacuum chucking is a lot like magnetic chucking in that you can get one
heck of a grip on sheet materials. The problem is that you need to
prevent sliding across the surface of the chuck. Much like you see
on a grinder where the magnetic chuck has a shoulder in place to hep the
part n question resist the temptation to slide across the chuck. Do
understand that the forces are different for milling, given enough area
relative to the tool doing the cutting and you may not walk.

As to your specific issue, if you expect to make a lot of parts from one
size of stock then you need to consider a purpose built chuck. That
way the vacuum porting is simple. One key with vacuum systems is
piping size, for ultimate efficiency you need rather large hoses and
porting networks on you chuck. This means taking care in how the
porting is done.

dave


Victor A. Estes wrote:

>
> Hi, has anyone built a vacuum table for a CNC mill? I need to clamp
> some aluminum plates (2 1/2" wide x 3 1/2" long x 1/2" and 1/4" thick)
> flat to the milling table so that I can surface the top of the plates.
> This is not a one time operation, but rather something that I will
> need to do all of the time. I was thinking that a vacuum table might
> do the trick, what do you think? Any suggestions. This will need to
> fit a Sherline metric CNC mill. I figure I can scale something up or
> down to fit.
>
> In an earlier post I saw reference to Mighty Mite edge clamps listed
> in McMaster Carr, but they don't seem to list any that fit the
> Sherline 10-32 screw hole that are in the milling table.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Victor A.
>
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