Odd-Not REVERSE VACUUM CHUCKING - Out of Business?

[Tom Jewett]

I saw a post that I think cam from the Symposium this year about the Odd-Not Reverse Vacuum chuck. Look a great design. The website seems live but always out of stock and he never answers e-mail or phone messages. Any body know if he is out of business? Thanks.
Tom

 

[Mark Jundanian]

He had a booth at last month's segmented symposium and I believe he is very much in business. I think he may be a bit overwhelmed.

 

[GRJensen]

I think he may be overwhelmed from the response he has been getting at symposiums. Be patient ... I think he is really onto something!

 

[John Suhreptz]

I placed an order at the September segmented symposium to be shipped as I had flown to Chicago. Yesterday after many unanswered phone and email messages I had the credit card company reverse the charges. I agree that I think he is onto something and it is a great system but his communication skills are very lacking. If he ever gets back to me I will reinstate my order but for now I want to be safe rather than sorry.

 

[Michael Luksich]

Just had the same experience at SWAT....still waiting for a response from him. Very disappointing lack of follow through. Nice product, horrible customer service. My only advice would be....if you buy something from him make sure you take it with you or you might not ever get it. I hate to post something like this, but dont want others to have the same experience as I am having.
Safe turning everyone!!!

 

[Richard Coers]

Not every person with a great invention is a good businessman. Just ask Nikola Tesla. Just because he's not as fast as Amazon does not mean he needs a bashing on the internet!

 

[Jim McLain]

Very interesting concept on vacuum chucking. I watched the SWAT video on them and can understand the response he is getting. My guess is he has probably not quit his day job and is trying to get caught up from all the symposium orders. Maybe down the road he will offer his system for the M33 users.

 

[odie]

Interesting concept.

For those who are curious, here's a link:

OddNot

www.odd-not.com

-o-

 

[Larry Mercier]

I think he may be overwhelmed from the response he has been getting at symposiums. Be patient ... I think he is really onto something!

I wonder if he has considered hiring a qualified worker to do the communication/shipping part of his business.

 

[William Rogers]

I just looked at the site and nothing appears to be out of stock.

 

[John Suhreptz]

See my earlier post #4. After a long delay my order from the segmented symposium in September 2022 finally shipped In December 2022. I use the system a lot and am very happy with it. I originally ordered just one aluminum hub intending to change the hub onto the three different sized PVC adapters ( what I think he calls his economy system) but decided to complete the set by ordering two more aluminum hubs. Service on this second order was just fine. He has made a sizable investment in additional production machinery so I hope he can keep up with new orders. I know it is frustrating dealing with delays but in my case all things turned out well and the products are great.

 

[Doug Rasmussen]

Looks like an interesting chucking system. His website shows a hint of a machine that is in the $200K price range, whether that's his is not clear. For some reason I can't bring the machine picture up again.

From my experience in manufacturing and marketing I don't think his prices are high enough. He shows foam spiders for $7, it costs more than that just to package the item.

It wouldn't be tremendously difficult to home build a somewhat similar setup. The most difficult part to make would be the hub, a chuck could be used for that with large plastic pipe for the aluminum piece that would be sealed around the chuck body. The angel wing could be made from a pipe fitting, closed cell foam for the friction lotus.

Has anybody actually received one and used it? OOPS, I see John has.

 

[GRJensen]

His website shows a hint of a machine that is in the $200K price range, whether that's his is not clear. For some reason I can't bring the machine picture up again.

The machine in this picture looks like a pretty pricey piece of equipment!

 

[Alan Weinberg]

how is it better than Frugal’s—can’t tell much from website?

 

[Tom De Winter]

Cindy did a video interview at SWAT that answers many questions.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFUVivBa8wQ

 

[Karl Loeblein]

Very interesting design on a vacuum chuck, and well worth what the seller is charging after watching the video. Hopefully his production gets caught up. Wonder if Cindy bought any chucks at the SWAT meeting?

 

[Tom De Winter]

Well, she is a self-admitted tool junkie.

 

[Rusty Nesmith]

I bought his aluminum one at the Kentucky Symposium. I love it. My lathe weighs around 350# and you almost drag it across the floor before you can pull a bowl off. That is it with the red ring.

 

[Pat Wisniewski]

I saw this thread with concerns about the Odd-Not folk’s responsiveness and communication.

This reminds me of back in the 1970s and 1980s when I owned two bicycle shops. We built wheels for bicycle and wheelchair racers. Phil and Vada Wood produced some of the earliest sealed-bearing, lightweight, aircraft aluminum hubs for the bicycle and wheelchair industries.
As a ‘Mom and Pop’ shop, there were delays in their shipping in the early days, but the product deserved patience on our part. All our orders were eventually filled, and as their volume grew they were indeed able to scale up. Our customers were quite willing to wait for the high quality and the longevity of a well-made pair of hubs.

At the Louisville symposium I volunteered from 9am till 4pm the first day in the vendor area during the ‘move in/setup’ period.
I saw Doug setting up his Odd-Not booth and when I had time went back and took a good look at everything he was producing and selling.
His products, although based on a standard vacuum chuck idea, have unique features which make them better than other systems. His tolerances and standards are unequaled. Doug has put a lot of thought into his products and they are designed unlike any others I have seen.

Just as an aside, Emiliano was assisting at Doug Thompson’s booth, and I mentioned he ought to go take a look at the Odd-Not products, as I thought it was a brilliantly designed and executed product line. When I next saw Emiliano, he excitedly said something like: ‘Incredible! I bought one of everything!’

At the Mid Atlantic Woodturners Symposium last weekend I bought all three sizes of the aluminum vacuum chucks, along with one of Frugal’s vacuum pumps. Doug and Bob (Frugal) are the type of innovators who are creative and are not out to gouge your wallet.

My impression:
Doug and Edith are a husband and wife team with a remarkable product. As to production and communication, what I would point out is, they are only two people managing the raw material acquisition, designing, machining, marketing, communicating, packaging, and shipping and troubleshooting of everything made and sold.

Their prices are quite reasonable and considering the CNC equipment needed to produce these items they have invested a lot, and likely do not have the volume of sales yet to support additional employees.


Give Doug time to ramp production and sales volume up!
You’ll not regret waiting for an excellent product.

 

[Alan Weinberg]

the video was very good and worth the half hour. So, to get rolling, you buy Frugal’s pump and Doug’s system and you’re ready? Nothing else needed?

 

[Mark Jundanian]

the video was very good and worth the half hour. So, to get rolling, you buy Frugal’s pump and Doug’s system and you’re ready? Nothing else needed?

Yes.

 

[Mike Haydon]

It appears he's offering an accurate, high-quality product, and demand has, in some cases, exceeded supply.

Sort of like if your Central A/C dies on a smoking hot Sunday, do you really WANT to use the Guy who can be there in 10 minutes?
(There's a reason he's not busy)

 

[Alan Weinberg]

any updates on availability? I guess I could go to the source . . .

 

[Darryn Achall]

OddNot stuff I ordered was shipped in about a week.

 

[R Henrickson]

They had a booth at the OVWG symposium this past weekend. Seemed to be well stocked.

 

[Bill Blasic]

I talked with the owner and he is quite a busy fellow. I told him about this thread. He is very knowledgeable about all aspects of his products. I asked what was the best one of the options he sells and bought that for the new lathe. So he is very much in business and he tries to make sure he answers all inquiries.

 

[Rusty Nesmith]

I bought a 4” vacuum Chuck from him made from an aluminum billet. It really does hold as good as advertised. I bought mine at the Kentucky Symposium. We had a vacuum Chuck demo at our club Saturday. After I demoed mine there are at least half a dozen people that want one.

 

[Marc Banka]

I had a nice chat with the owner, Douglas last week after I had placed an order. I was going to get his 3 piece pvc drums, but changed to buying two of the aluminum (newer style) drums. Received the order three days later. Haven’t tried them yet, but it all looks awesome.
I also told him about this forum, the questions asked, and that the consensus is he’s a new business and got swamped.
He said he’s pretty well caught up now.
This is the new style chuck, which wasn’t yet on the website

.

 

[R Henrickson]

I had a nice chat with the owner, Douglas last week after I had placed an order. I was going to get his 3 piece pvc drums, but changed to buying two of the aluminum (newer style) drums. Received the order three days later. Haven’t tried them yet, but it all looks awesome.
I also told him about this forum, the questions asked, and that the consensus is he’s a new business and got swamped.
He said he’s pretty well caught up now.
This is the new style chuck, which wasn’t yet on the website

.View attachment 56432View attachment 56433View attachment 56434

I saw those at the symposium during the weekend

 

[John Whitley]

[…] but changed to buying two of the aluminum (newer style) drums. […]

Those look interesting. I’m super curious about the design/build motivations for the switch from PVC to aluminum here. (Also, I’d be super interested in an “extra small” vacuum chucking setup from Odd Not, something that would afford that same increased flexibility for reverse chucking small cups/vessels/boxes and so forth.)

 

[GRJensen]

I’m super curious about the design/build motivations for the switch from PVC to aluminum here.

I would think Aluminum is far more stable than PVC, and may offer some manufacturing options that PVC does not.

 

[Rusty Nesmith]

I had a nice chat with the owner, Douglas last week after I had placed an order. I was going to get his 3 piece pvc drums, but changed to buying two of the aluminum (newer style) drums. Received the order three days later. Haven’t tried them yet, but it all looks awesome.
I also told him about this forum, the questions asked, and that the consensus is he’s a new business and got swamped.
He said he’s pretty well caught up now.
This is the new style chuck, which wasn’t yet on the website

.View attachment 56432View attachment 56433View attachment 56434

You will love that Marc. I bought one from him at the Kentucky Symposium and have used it quite a bit. Very nice piece of kit.

 

[Marc Banka]

The pvc has a thin hard mating surface with the bowl. The aluminum wide curved profile mating area.
It seemed the friction spiders he had for the pvc made a nice soft surface. I’m not sure what’s going on with those. Unavailable at this time.
Between the vacuum vent slots on the aluminum chuck are rubber pads and felt pads, alternately. The rubber gives grip and the felt is a crush limiter. All seems very logical, but haven’t tried mine yet.
As to manufacturing, he reports that the pvc are labor intensive, whereas he can set and let the equipment work for the aluminum.
The aluminum chucks are well made, and I assume will outlive the pvc.

 

[John Whitley]

As to manufacturing, he reports that the pvc are labor intensive, whereas he can set and let the equipment work for the aluminum.

Ah, that’s the sort of thing I was looking for, and makes complete sense now. I have dabbled just a bit in design-for-manufacturing, so I find this sort of thing pretty interesting. There’s often a world of difference between a one-off or prototype (“I can make one really easily this way.”) versus design choices that reduce cost/pain factor when doing production run(s).

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this as an option for vacuum chucking…

 

[William Leigher]

I purchased a set of the aluminum chucks at the Florida Woodturning symposium last weekend. I haven't turned with these yet but from my initial test I think they hold better than my 5 inch Oneway vacuum chuck using the stock Laguna inverter vacuum system.

 

[John Grace]

Question...this seems like an interesting concept but in all fairness, it also seems overly complicated to Oneway's solid milled aluminum vacume chuck or am I missing the obvious?

 

[Paul Paukstelis]

Question...this seems like an interesting concept but in all fairness, it also seems overly complicated to Oneway's solid milled aluminum vacume chuck or am I missing the obvious?

I think it really is just about simplifying how you get the vacuum to the chuck. It doesn't require any special connections as it goes in at the hand wheel.

 

[William Leigher]

Question...this seems like an interesting concept but in all fairness, it also seems overly complicated to Oneway's solid milled aluminum vacume chuck or am I missing the obvious?

I spent a lot of time talking with Douglas before I purchased the aluminum chucks. I think that he would say that the difference is the "angel wings" that are used in the Odd-Not vacuum chucks. I have a single 5 inch Oneway vacuum chuck and whether I am using the Oneway stick on pads or a Rubber Chucky ring I have had a problem losing vacuum and his pitch is that the angel wing helps maintain the seal. At one point he mentioned that he gets regular requests to produce angel wings for Oneway vacuum chucks. Here is the description from the website. https://www.odd-not.com/shop/p/angel-wing-seals

"Put a Angel Wing Seal on the shoulder of your vacuum cup and receive forgiveness that you’ve never seen in any-other vacuum chuck system. Forgives equals resilience. The other systems all share one similarity, despite how different from one another they look. What they all share in common is if there is any separation / a gap formed between your bowl and the cup the vacuum is lost and so is the hold on your bowl. That gap can come from a sudden catch that the other systems never recover from. Angel Wing Seals allow .50” (1/2”) or more gapping between bowl and cup before completely letting go. In plain English: if you pull hard enough you will overcome the force of the vacuum pressure but if the pulling force is released the bowl / vacuum holding will recover pulling the bowl back to the cup. The bowl will likely not be back on center but your bowl will not be on the floor in pieces. All is not lost. Release the vacuum, re-center the bowl on the chuck and turn the vacuum back on so you can continue to finish your work."

 

[Dean Center]

Yesterday, I browsed the Odd Not site and almost all the products were labeled "out of stock." This was the issue years ago. Is the current lack of stock explainable and temporary?

 

[William Leigher]

Yesterday, I browsed the Odd Not site and almost all the products were labeled "out of stock." This was the issue years ago. Is the current lack of stock explainable and temporary?

At the Florida symposium last weekend, he has ample PVC vacuum chucks in stock and had sold out of the smallest size aluminum chuck. The blogs on the website are a bit dated but it does seem that it is a struggle to maintain inventory. I have been communicating with Douglas via text and will suggest that he add a post here to update those who are interested in these chucks.