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Not using my vacuum chuck much

John Hicks

John Hicks

Joined
Jan 23, 2020
Messages
695
Likes
975
Location
Shingletown CA
I found myself going back to a simple chunk of turned wood with tailstock support for removing the tenons on bowls. I really don't like the way the vacuum chuck messes up the finish or pulls out oil. It's a frugal vacuum system with two sizes of hold fast chucks, but I just don't see a reason to use it anymore? I'm not even sure why I thought I "needed" one?? Probably the same reason I need 5 5/8 bowl gouges.
 
Huh. I use my vacuum chuck all the time and can no longer imagine making a nice bottom without the ability to get the tail stock out of the way. Once again, there are many ways to do everything in woodturning.
 
John Hicks said:
I found myself going back to a simple chunk of turned wood with tailstock support for removing the tenons on bowls. I really don't like the way the vacuum chuck messes up the finish or pulls out oil. It's a frugal vacuum system with two sizes of hold fast chucks, but I just don't see a reason to use it anymore? I'm not even sure why I thought I "needed" one?? Probably the same reason I need 5 5/8 bowl gouges.
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I seldom use my vacuum on bowls. Just quicker and easier to reverse chuck and friction drive.
Use vacuum on the occasional platter, some ornaments, and to hold some spherical forms for hollowing.
Still a great asset when i want it
 
Bought a vacuum chuck and rotary coupling a while ago on a whim when I needed a tax write off, but still haven’t used them. Jam chucks are pretty simple and quick, and always perfectly centered.
 
I have the threaded#2 Morse taper adaptor from best wood tools. It allows me to take the bowl with chuck still attached and put it in the tailstock. Thus allows me to perfectly align the bowl on the vacuum chuck. Push it up to the chuck, turn the vacuum on then release the chuck attached to the bowl. Very quick.
 
Not sure about the vac chuck, as I’ve yet to use/own one, but nothing wrong with 5 5/8” bowl gouges - I have 6. They will eventually be used! Makes it easier to try different grinds/angles etc on a particular piece of wood.
 
John Hicks said:
I found myself going back to a simple chunk of turned wood with tailstock support for removing the tenons on bowls. I really don't like the way the vacuum chuck messes up the finish or pulls out oil.
Click to expand...
I never bought a vacuum chuck as it didn't seem like it would do any better job than a friction drive held with the tailstock, and you don't have all that extra gear hanging on the back of your headstock. The problem with the VC messing up a finish is something I don't understand, if applying a finish (partial) is required to pull a vacuum on a piece then that is another major point against the VC.
 
It seems to me that any form of tailstock support will prevent extensive finishing and decorating of the bottoms of pieces. You might want to try the method described in the Tips and Techniques forum: Poor Man's Reverse Chucking System". (August 2020). It provides full access to the bottoms, and works in many situations where a vacuum chuck or Cole Jaws won't.
 
I've got a VC and have been using it quite a lot the past couple of years. But I've had some bad marks on finishes -- I guess I just can't wait a couple days for the finish to cure sufficiently for the VC to not mess things up. Plus, frankly, I've never been 100% confident that I'm not going to throw the piece off the chuck even with 25 lbs and using light cuts. I've recently purchased the 18" Vicmarc Adjust-a-jaw; I'm not going to mess up the finish, and I'm not going to throw a piece, but the setup time for each use is a bit of a pain.
 
I've used my vacuum chuck on every bowl I've turned so far. Although, I do agree that it can mess up the interior at times.
 
Karl Best said:
I've got a VC and have been using it quite a lot the past couple of years. But I've had some bad marks on finishes -- I guess I just can't wait a couple days for the finish to cure sufficiently for the VC to not mess things up. Plus, frankly, I've never been 100% confident that I'm not going to throw the piece off the chuck even with 25 lbs and using light cuts. I've recently purchased the 18" Vicmarc Adjust-a-jaw; I'm not going to mess up the finish, and I'm not going to throw a piece, but the setup time for each use is a bit of a pain.
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I always use the VC to turn the tenon off before any finish is applied.
 
I put the finish on with the bowl on the lathe. I myself get better overall results. I prefer a recess for that reason. When twice turning, the tenon is really the only way to go. Since the wood moves so much while drying, the recess would be almost impossible to true up for re mounting. I like to use finishes with a film; So the vacuuum chuck always messes them up no matter how long they dry. Oil is a bit more forgivable as you can just re rub in in. Forget something like sanding pastes and polish.
 
I did build the Vacuum setup on my lathe better than ............ I just looked it up Feb 2004, tried it, put it away and never used it ever.

Vacuum setup.jpg

I do twice turning at least 95% of the time and use a recess in pretty much every turning I make, some do still have a tenon from the turnings I did 20 years or longer ago.

Yes the wood does warp, most are oval, and I can and do chuck the oval recess, the jaws can grab the oval on 4 spots and hold good enough for me to turn the piece, or I hold it in the Jumbo jaws and return the recess.

I'm sure I do not win the time race turning, but I have fun doing it my way and do get pretty nice pieces that I like.

Red Oak burl bowl.jpg

White Ash.jpg

Catalpa.jpg
 
I use a vac chuck for just about every bowl - my system is very simple to setup - takes less than 30 seconds to switch over. But I do leave the bowl in the chuck, apply very dilute sanding sealer to the inside and let it dry thoroughly before setting up in the vac chuck. So I’ll have several bowls sitting around in chucks drying until I’m ready to do a session of finishing, sometimes they’ll wait a day…
 
@Larry Copas I agree! Almost every piece I turn (except for some spindle stuff) sees a vacuum chuck at one point or another. My first semi-production item was a small hand/pocket mirror in 1994 - totally turned with a vacuum chuck ... followed by other small items. Where a vacuum chuck really excels is when making a necessary repair of any kind - the easiest, and often the only way, to remount a piece.
 
I liked my VC until I ended up "tattooing" a few pieces with dust and/or finish, and I couldn't erase or blend the transition point. May I ask, you folks that are using VCs successfully, what are you doing to prevent pulling in dust/finish and essentially staining the zone under the vacuum?
 
Steven Forrest said:
I liked my VC until I ended up "tattooing" a few pieces with dust and/or finish, and I couldn't erase or blend the transition point. May I ask, you folks that are using VCs successfully, what are you doing to prevent pulling in dust/finish and essentially staining the zone under the vacuum?
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I don’t apply the finish until after I am done turning the piece.
 
Steven Forrest said:
I liked my VC until I ended up "tattooing" a few pieces with dust and/or finish, and I couldn't erase or blend the transition point. May I ask, you folks that are using VCs successfully, what are you doing to prevent pulling in dust/finish and essentially staining the zone under the vacuum?
Click to expand...
Ditto.
 
Steven Forrest said:
I liked my VC until I ended up "tattooing" a few pieces with dust and/or finish, and I couldn't erase or blend the transition point. May I ask, you folks that are using VCs successfully, what are you doing to prevent pulling in dust/finish and essentially staining the zone under the vacuum?
Click to expand...
Let it cure/dry fully. Pulling dust? ... never had that problem after a finish was applied.
 
Thanks, Rusty, Dean, and Tom. So Rusty and Dean, you don't get any dust pulled into the pores in the wood? Tom, I wonder if insufficiently dried finish was the issue. I can run a test on a scrap bowl and see. Also, would the intensity of the suction possibly be a contributor to the discoloration? In other words, do you think too high a suction could slightly damage/alter the cells such that the suction "zone" appears slightly darker?
 
Steven Forrest said:
Thanks, Rusty, Dean, and Tom. So Rusty and Dean, you don't get any dust pulled into the pores in the wood? Tom, I wonder if insufficiently dried finish was the issue. I can run a test on a scrap bowl and see. Also, would the intensity of the suction possibly be a contributor to the discoloration? In other words, do you think too high a suction could slightly damage/alter the cells such that the suction "zone" appears slightly darker?
Click to expand...
Yes, Steven, most likely your finish wasn't dried/cured enough. The vacuum is probably pulling some still uncured finish through the pores. Take a scrap bowl, as you mentioned, put some finish on the exterior and then put it on your vacuum chuck while wet ... you will get an idea of how vacuum will pull finish through the pores - some woods (i.e. oak) more than others.
No, I don't think high suction would damage the wood's cell structure.
You might want to use a disc-type vac chuck - then if you do have any minor discoloration it would be on the entire interior surface. Of course, that won't work with a natural edge bowl. Do a search on the forum - this has been discussed quite recently.
 
Steven Forrest said:
Thanks, Rusty, Dean, and Tom. So Rusty and Dean, you don't get any dust pulled into the pores in the wood? Tom, I wonder if insufficiently dried finish was the issue. I can run a test on a scrap bowl and see. Also, would the intensity of the suction possibly be a contributor to the discoloration? In other words, do you think too high a suction could slightly damage/alter the cells such that the suction "zone" appears slightly darker?
Click to expand...
I have never noticed a dust problem. I have also put bowls back on the VC after the finish has dried and cured and not seen a problem. I can see where it might be a problem for those that like to finish on the lathe. I have never seen a need or advantage to doing that.
 
Like Rusty, I haven't really had a problem. Blow them off with air after removing from the vacuum chuck and do what you want with them. As noted, I don't apply finish on the lathe anymore, except the inside of boxes where I use friction polish. Boxes are on a tenon and not the vacuum at that point. For other pieces and finishes, there's just too much airborne crap, and it ties up the lathe.
 
Steven Forrest said:
I liked my VC until I ended up "tattooing" a few pieces with dust and/or finish, and I couldn't erase or blend the transition point. May I ask, you folks that are using VCs successfully, what are you doing to prevent pulling in dust/finish and essentially staining the zone under the vacuum?
Click to expand...
Rather than a tube or bowl-shaped chuck, mine is a flat plate (what Tom Gall called a disc-style) with 1/16th" foam on the surface. Those dust hickies inside the bowl, whether they've got finish involved or not, are impossible to remove, which is why I've stopped using the tube-style chucks on the interior of bowls. With the flat chuck (looks like a great big faceplate), you simply put the rim of the bowl on the plate, bring up the tailstock to center it and turn on the vacuum. The contact point between the bowl and the vacuum gasket is the rim, rather than the interior wall. Any dust line is much, much harder to see>

In the photos, you can see the bowl adhered to the vacuum plate, ready for the foot to get turned, and in the side view you can see that the gasket foam is just loosely attached to the plate with a bit of double-stick tape. There's no reason to glue your gasket foam down, unless scraping old busted gasket foam and glue off of your chuck is fun for you. The vacuum will hold it in place enough to make the seal, and the tape holds it in place enough to keep it there when the vacuum isn't on.vacuum chuck side.jpg
 
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