Odd-Not REVERSE VACUUM CHUCKING - Out of Business?

[GRJensen]

We should give the guy a break. I suspect he is a one-man operation that has developed a terrific product and maybe underestimated demand.

 

[Rusty Nesmith]

We should give the guy a break. I suspect he is a one-man operation that has developed a terrific product and maybe underestimated demand.

I agree. I bought his large at the time aluminum vacuum Chuck and it is by far the best I have used. I talked to him for a while at the Kentucky symposium and he is a nice guy. He is a small operation and my guess is he is having trouble keeping up with the demand.

 

[John Grace]

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."

Thank you for the explanation William. If they work for others and they're happy then who am I to argue...we all have our methods.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

We should give the guy a break. I suspect he is a one-man operation that has developed a terrific product and maybe underestimated demand.

This is exactly the situation.

 

[Larry Steinmetz]

This is a somewhat older thread, but I thought I would tag on to it. I bought a Robust American Beauty some time ago, and added a vacuum adapter to the order. However, I haven’t gone any further on setting up a vacuum chucking system. I am interested in the OddNot aluminum mono system, and was wondering if the Robust adapter would/could be used with this system. Thanks for any comments.

 

[Alan Weinberg]

Email Bob: FrugalVacuumChuck@gmail.com

 

[Jim Reynolds]

This is a somewhat older thread, but I thought I would tag on to it. I bought a Robust American Beauty some time ago, and added a vacuum adapter to the order. However, I haven’t gone any further on setting up a vacuum chucking system. I am interested in the OddNot aluminum mono system, and was wondering if the Robust adapter would/could be used with this system. Thanks for any comments.

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I don't believe you need any adapter on the hand wheel side of the headstock. With the one I bought, the bearing is inside the body of the chuck and you just stick the plastic tube into the back of the chuck body and it is held with friction. The animation on the main page of the Odd Not website shows the plastic tube being inserted in to the back of the chuck prior to threading it on to the lathe.

 

[Marc Banka]

Larry, the two don’t need to have anything to do with the other.
Since you have the vacuum adapter on the hand wheel side, leave the little nylon tube in place, and screw the chuck to your lathe, like any other chuck. That’s it!
Adapter at one end, chuck at the other.

 

[Brent@TurnRobust]

Actually, if you have the Robust vacuum adapter, you'd leave the tube off of the Odd-Not chuck. The adapter in the Odd-Not chuck is redundant to the Robust vacuum adapter. You need one or the other, not both.

 

[Larry Steinmetz]

Actually, if you have the Robust vacuum adapter, you'd leave the tube off of the Odd-Not chuck. The adapter in the Odd-Not chuck is redundant to the Robust vacuum adapter. You need one or the other, not both.

Thanks Brent. I must be missing something in the operation of a vacuum chuck or my understanding of your answer. If I used the Robust vacuum adapter on the handle side, wouldn’t I still need to feed a tube through to the chuck regardless of what system I was using?

 

[Larry Steinmetz]

I don't believe you need any adapter on the hand wheel side of the headstock. With the one I bought, the bearing is inside the body of the chuck and you just stick the plastic tube into the back of the chuck body and it is held with friction. The animation on the main page of the Odd Not website shows the plastic tube being inserted in to the back of the chuck prior to threading it on to the lathe.

Thanks Jim. So if I understand correctly, the hose inside of the headstock is static when using an OddNot, but when using an adapter like the Robust on the wheel side, the hose is turning between the adapter and the chuck. Sorry...I might really be showing my ignorance of these systems right now.

EDIT: Looking at the picture on the Robust site again and rereading Brent’s comment, it appears that no hose is used with the Robust adapter.

 

[Jim Reynolds]

I'll take another swing at this ball. In all solutions the hose from the vacuum pump can't be spinning around for obvious reasons. So the hose has to attach to a fitting that is part of a ball bearing assembly to take the rotation of the spinning lathe and not pass it on to the hose. So, the question becomes where is the ball bearing with the hose barb? The Robust solution (and many others) places this ball bearing with a hose barb on the outboard end of the headstock. The Robust adapter seals the headstock from the outboard end and the chuck seals the threaded spindle end. With both ends air tight the vacuum pump can do it's job and no hose inside the headstock spindle is required. The Odd Not solution puts the ball bearing and hose barb inside the base of the chuck. The vacuum hose attaches to the hose barb and the hose doesn't rotate inside the headstock spindle.

I found Doc Green's explanation of how to build a rotary adapter very enlightening, perhaps you will also. I recommend his book as well.

Hopefully this helps.

 

[Stan Pressner]

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.

Doug, I have been using both the aluminum and plastic version since March, and love them.

 

[Stan Pressner]

I might also note that I followed Douglas's advice and bought a $100 oil less pump on Amazon and it works fine.

 

[Larry Steinmetz]

I'll take another swing at this ball. In all solutions the hose from the vacuum pump can't be spinning around for obvious reasons. So the hose has to attach to a fitting that is part of a ball bearing assembly to take the rotation of the spinning lathe and not pass it on to the hose. So, the question becomes where is the ball bearing with the hose barb? The Robust solution (and many others) places this ball bearing with a hose barb on the outboard end of the headstock. The Robust adapter seals the headstock from the outboard end and the chuck seals the threaded spindle end. With both ends air tight the vacuum pump can do it's job and no hose inside the headstock spindle is required. The Odd Not solution puts the ball bearing and hose barb inside the base of the chuck. The vacuum hose attaches to the hose barb and the hose doesn't rotate inside the headstock spindle.

I found Doc Green's explanation of how to build a rotary adapter very enlightening, perhaps you will also. I recommend his book as well.

Hopefully this helps.

Hi Jim…excellent response and definitely clears up my confusion. Thanks!

 

[Larry Steinmetz]

I might also note that I followed Douglas's advice and bought a $100 oil less pump on Amazon and it works fine.

I am going to take a look at the new vacuum pump on the Robust site. I was hoping to find a non-Asian one but Brent stated that there are not that many USA made ones in a woodworkers price range (though I bought a Robust American Beauty so I wonder what that range actually is?

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

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

Has anyone found this video anywhere else? I remember watching it some time ago in a previous research period on vacuum chucking, but it doesn’t seem to be available now.

 

[Rusty Nesmith]

Thanks Brent. I must be missing something in the operation of a vacuum chuck or my understanding of your answer. If I used the Robust vacuum adapter on the handle side, wouldn’t I still need to feed a tube through to the chuck regardless of what system I was using?

I don think you would need the tube. The spindle is solid. It should still draw the vacuum on the Chuck.

 

[Larry Steinmetz]

I don think you would need the tube. The spindle is solid. It should still draw the vacuum on the Chuck.

Thanks Rusty…that was the small but important detail I missed; it all makes sense now. Since I already own the Robust adapter, whatever route I go will most likely incorporate it instead of using a tube through the spindle.

 

[Rusty Nesmith]

Thanks Rusty…that was the small but important detail I missed; it all makes sense now. Since I already own the Robust adapter, whatever route I go will most likely incorporate it instead of using a tube through the spindle.

A friend of mine does that on his Powermatic. It works very well.

 

[Tom Gall]

Thanks Rusty…that was the small but important detail I missed; it all makes sense now. Since I already own the Robust adapter, whatever route I go will most likely incorporate it instead of using a tube through the spindle.

Yes, with that method ... the spindle is the "tube". I have at least 20 (maybe more) different types and/or sizes of vacuum chucks - if I had a tube sticking out of all of them that would be a storage nightmare! I started using vacuum chucks (home made) in 1994.

 

[Jim Reynolds]

Yes, with that method ... the spindle is the "tube". I have at least 20 (maybe more) different types and/or sizes of vacuum chucks - if I had a tube sticking out of all of them that would be a storage nightmare! I started using vacuum chucks (home made) in 1994.

Just a point of clarification. There is only one vacuum hose / tube in the Odd Not solution, there is a hose barb in the base of each vacuum chuck. The animation on this page shows vacuum hose being attached to the vacuum chuck body prior to threading on the lathe. I agree that a hose of every chuck would be cumbersome.