I have never used a vacuum chuck, but decided to build a system as I had a Thomas pump. I rebuilt the pump and it pulls 29" Hg stand alone. My lathe is a PM 90 and there are no off the shelf chucks. Long story short my system pulls 19" Hg when I have a flat 8-9" board mounted on my 4" pvc style chuck. I think this is about 500 lbs force. It seems to hold well and I did run the lathe at 800 rpm with no problem, but no tool to the wood. I can only speculate the leakage my be through the bearing. Cheap bearing from supply house. My questions are how much vacuum is necessary and should I be looking at better bearings? Bearing suggestions? Since it is homemade I can see a design improvement, but if leaking through the bearing no help.
Thanks, Bill
Edit: I am using 2" hard maple for my chuck and rotary adapter. Should I be using different material?
Thanks, Bill
Edit: I am using 2" hard maple for my chuck and rotary adapter. Should I be using different material?
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