Hold Fast Vacuum Chuck System

[cypher]

Has anyone used the Hold Fast Vacuum Chuck System. It converts compressor air into a vacuum. i am intrested in buying the kit but want to ensure that it will work properly. My compress will support the required 2.5 CFI @ 55-66 PSI. It claims to be able to create 19+ inches of vacuum. Any thoughs??? Anyone have one of these or used one???

Hold Fast System

 

[Bill Boehme]

That would be its capability with no system leaks and 19 in-Hg is marginal. The rotary coupling will have a slight leak and there will be a slight leak at the vacuum chuck. The amount of leak through the wood can vary considerably depending on the wood and thickness. Small venturi systems don't perform well with leaks so it might be problematic to fine tune the vacuum if you are turning something that is thin that requires less vacuum to keep it from imploding.

 

[Gary]

There is going to be a lot of noise. And thats a lot of money for a marginal system. Check out this link for a gast vacuum pump for $89.95. surplus center
Check out the "How-to" section of the forum for a lot of info on vacuum chucking. The adaptors and chucks can be shop-made; and it won't be all that expensive.

 

[Martin Braun]

I just finished my vacuum chuck system with a used gast pump off ebay for a little over $100 (120VAC), and the Lowe's rotary adaptor & chuck for dummies procedure. Used it the other day, worked really nice!

 

[MesquiteMan]

and the Lowe's rotary adaptor & chuck for dummies procedure

Martin,

Can you please expound on this a little. Did you get parts to make your own rotary adapter from Lowes? If so, can you point me to any info. Thanks!

 

[Martin Braun]

Here's the link pdf for do-it-yourself vacuum chuck. This was put together by Al Crandall. I had been digging in other forums & folks mentioned they found it worked. I did too, and you can't beat the price. I think I paid $30 or less for the parts. I assembled the basic stuff to get the vacuum line to the vacuum chuck I made on the stock faceplate that came with my lathe. I never use the faceplate for anything else. The only issue I had is I think two of the isle numbers he refers to were reversed. I don't know if that's just cuz Lowe's reversed them recently, or what.

The tricky parts are turning the inside of the female end of the PVC adaptor and getting the bearing perfectly square in there when you assemble.

Durability-wise, I think it will hold up for at least a few years under normal use. When one looks at the prices for the adaptor & connection kits at Craft Supply, it seems worth a shot to me.

If you'd like a pic of mine, let me know and I'll go set it up & take one.

 

[Martin Braun]

Oh, and another thing I forgot to mention. One or two of the parts might be temporarily out of stock - so you might have to call around. Lowes doesn't do a great job of tracking inventory, so make them physically go look & see if the part is on the rack. Chances are the computer is wrong. Nonetheless, it's a fun little project.

 

[john lucas]

My current adaptor for my vacuum system is a bearing with a barbed hose coupler epoxied into it. This fits in a hole bored in my Powermatic handwheel. A machinist friend did that job for me. If you don't have that option I used to use a homemade version of the EZ vacuum adaptor. I'll try to post the instructions.

 

[john lucas]

I should mention that the 4" crossbar that I use for the female thread is a lamp part. They are used to hold lamps to the ceiling in a junction box. You can get all the parts at Lowe's.

 

[mlchapman]

Hold Fast Vacuum System

Saw it at the 2006 symposium, bought it, used it, and like it. You can do all the homemade stuff and save some money--maybe. But I wanted to try a vacuum system (soon) without spending $800 for the industry standard. It works. Even at lower vacuum (12-15) it holds. Some of my more porous woods get low vacuum, but some hold at 22 plus on this system.

I had to call the manufacture once for a minor, but confusing problem to me because I was new to vacuum turning. They could not have been more helpful. They were even willing to do the "fix" for me if I was uncomfortable with a screwdriver and wanted to send it to them for a couple of days. No problem, I did the fix.

Someday I may buy the big dog model, but for now, this is just fine. :cool2:

 

[Brian M]

I have not used the hold fast system but I have used a venturi system for the last few years. This is a system I made myself and it operates on 80 PSI and I have been able to hold from 12 to 25 inches of vacuum depending on the wood.

Even if you have lower vacuum hold pressure it is dependent on surface area as well. So if you are able to use a larger chuck on more porus woods you will have good hold. Easy way to calculate the holding pressure is 3.14* r^2 of the chuck * inches of vacuum * .5 and this will give you the pounds of holding power.

I use a system similar to the drawing below for going through my lathe headstock to provide the vacuum to the chuck. I have posted a few pictures of my system. There have been improvements to this system to date there are now a pressure gauge and vacuum gauge to monitor it while I turn. The lathe ahs since been upgraded as well. Have the PM 3520 now(Wow)

I have made a few of these and sold them they work really good and are small. Yes there is some noise from the air going through the venturi but you can direct that anywhere so it will not be as noisy.

I am sure the hold fast system is a good one. I really want to try one of there chucks. I use about 2 to 2.5 scfm of air to run the venturi. The nice part is if you demonstrate the vacuum system is small and easy to take along and most everyone I know has an air compressor( big advantage). I have used this with one of the small compressors that barely meet these requirements and it worked fine.

The vacuum pump can supply larger volumes of vacuum for the more porus wood and this is good, but I have found that using the blue masking tape where the chuck meets the wood will give me the results that I want if vacuum pressure is low.

I hope that I answered your questions

Thanks

Brian

 

[cypher]

I have made a few of these and sold them they work really good and are small. Yes there is some noise from the air going through the venturi but you can direct that anywhere so it will not be as noisy.

Do you still sell this system? How much? Please PM me