The QUAD

[bearcat]

I have been working with Luthiers Mercantile Int., www.lmii.com (http://www.lmii.com), to setup and move current and new product production onto their new PRS Alpha. It came time to build a vacuum holdown system and using Brady's open source vacuum project thread as a starting point, I designed and built this system, nicknamed the QUAD.

The 5' x 8' table is split into 6 equal zones, each with a 1" grid 3/8" deep into the table and a matching grid 1/8" deep into the 3/4" Trupan spoilboard. Each zone has a vacuum gauge.

ABS drainage plumbing is used throughout to take avantage of its smooth flow design. The table zone manifold is 3" ABS and is mounted under the front rail with Al straps and guillotine style u-bolts from McMaster-Carr. Specific zone plumbing is 2" ABS with 2" gate valves with stainless steel paddles. The valves are from www.westpacsupply.com (http://www.westpacsupply.com)

Four VBTST13431AEAD motors are mounted to a 15mm plywood housing containing a 3" ABS plenum. Each motor is on it's own power switch and 15amp breaker. 1 1/2" ABS and gate valves are used to switch intakes/exhausts for 2 parallel, 4 parallel, or 2+2 series parallel operation.The 4 mufflers are also from Lighthouse Ent.

For maintenance, all valves were bonded with silicone rubber and the right side of motor housing is a bolt-on.

With all table zone valves closed, the vacuum is 10+in Hg for 2 or 4 motors in parallel and 17+in Hg 2+2 series parallel. The series motors do heat up quickly with no airflow, so I use this only for very short runs with some leakage.

The system has run now for about 3 weeks with no problems. It is loud, even with mufflers. Larger parts are easily held with 2 motors. With smaller parts or many cuts, I've switched on the 2 other motors during the run to maintain vacuum.

Installed left view

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Installed right view

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Left side of motor housing

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Front of motor housing

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Motor plenum

487

Motor mount

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Zones manifold

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Manifold strap

490

Zone Valves

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Gate Valve

492

[dingwall]

Nice work. It has the look of real craftsmanship.

[chiloquinruss]

It just needs some Nascar stickers on it cause it looks really 'fast'!
Wonderful workmanship, I can tell you have real pride in your shop and your tools. Well done. Russ

[Brady Watson]

Beautiful work, Ed! I love it!

I'm not big on stickers...but some polished diamond plate or airbrushed flames would be pretty slick! I sure does look 'real fast'


-B

[paco]

Very nice work! Make me wonder why I have been all around for schedule 40 white PVC...!
493

[rob_bell]

That's pretty cool, Ed. I like it. It looks to me like it's supposed to be loud.

[joe]

Very Impressive,

What do you think it costs?
What type of work do you usually do that will require such a heavy system?

[joe]

Very Impressive,

What do you think it costs?
What type of work do you usually do that will require such a heavy system?

[myxpykalix]

"Transformers...robots in disguise"

[steve4460]

Nice work . Just make shure you have an extiguisher near by , so this dosen't happen http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/312/29351.html?1206932107

Bot on

[bill1]

Very nice, excellent work

[bearcat]

Joe,

I don't have final parts total, but it's ~ $1100, with the major costs being the motors-mufflers ~ $650 and the valves ~ $200.

The QUAD is a big vacuum pump at 400CFM and 10+in Hg. It is surprising how much vacuum is lost to wood product porosity. Were using LDF for larger parts, which is very porus, and by the end of a run over a 4' square area, the vacuum is only 2-3 in Hg with all 4 motors running in parallel.

Ed

[carvingartists]

Ed,

very impressive!
I just finished my version of the quad, and used it for the first time last night.. It is an awesome thing to watch work. I will be posting pics soon..
Ours also is extremely loud with mufflers. The next project is to quiet them down


Blair

[harryball]

Ed... do you actually work in your shop or just make it look cool? :-) There is no where near enough saw dust on the floor and stuff in piles that you'll eventually finish/organize/clean up.

I'm impressed with the vac system. 400+ CFM with at least 7" of vac has been my target system. I find the 5" to 6" I get with the feins to be enough for most things but more CFM would make it much more forgiving.

Keep us posted on how it works... and throw some saw dust on the floor for the next photos so we don't feel so bad. :-)

/RB

[maginter]

THAT'S TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!

[harold_weber]

Ed, do you have enough time on this setup to say you are happy with those sliding gate valves? I recall Paco posting that he designed his own version of a gate valve because he was afraid of having dust accumulate and making it hard to operate the valves.

Also I see that these valves are available with either a plastic blade or a stainless steel blade. The stainless steel version that you are using appears to be triple the price. What prompted you to choose these?

[bearcat]

Hi Harold,

With about 3 weeks of run time, the valves are working well. I chose them for their compact size and ease of use, compared to ball valves. These Valterra valves are well built with O-rings and a deep blade channel. I think the stainless steel bladed valves will last longer in daily use.

I'm seeing the 7201 plastic blade 2" ABS valves @ $13.57 and the 5201 stainless steel @ $20.81 at https://www.westpacsupply.com/index.php?c=D2

Ed

[paco]

Harlod, my reply (1st April) to your email just bounced back. Do you want me to post the reply here?

You Comcast subscribers must be missing some emails...?!

[harold_weber]

Paco, yes, post it here. Thank you.

[paco]

Harold Weber wrote:
> Hi Paco,
>
> I recall you made your own sliding gate valves for your vacuum system. Are you still happy with them?

Yes I am. So far so good.

>
> I see that Ed build "THE QUAD" using a sliding gate valve with a stainless steel blade. Looks like these cost 45USD. There is another model from the same company with a plastic blade available for 15USD. Maybe the choice is simply a matter of how much vacuum you intend to have across the valve??

Hmmm... I can't tell why there's the option but I'd say the plastic one should hold very well even under high vacuum.

Those off the shelf sliding gate valve cost about $30 (2" ID) around here for the plastic version. I looked at them and I notice a quite stiff operation because of a rubber seal (lubricate with some clear grease) so I was a bit skeptical using them under dusty conditions. This is the reason I made the all acrylic version. They may not be ideal under very high a vacuum (say 20 in.Hg - they may start to leak?) but I cannot detect leak at 5-10 in.Hg. Considering the time I spent on the design, cutting and assembling I wouldn't say it was a big saving but I was pretty confident they wouldn't "seize" from being use with some dust since there's no seal what so ever and I can slide the gate out for blowing the assembly clean.

[harold_weber]

Thanks Paco. I'm not sure what I was smoking when I saw a price of $45.00 for the stainless steel version of the 2" valve, today I see it priced at $19.42 (US Dollars) on the web site kindly provided by Ed.

[paco]

If the commercial slide gate do well in dusty condition than they are definitely worth it. Since I can get Trupan or something similar on this side of the border, I need something that can stand dust and chips conditions.

[waynelocke]

Dust collection blast gates may not work since they do not have seals but here is a link for fairly inexpensive self cleaning blast gates, http://www.blastgateco.com/details/blastgate.php?id=3. They wouldn't connect to pvc as easily as the others but they may work fine since the vacuum would tend to suck up the tongue and seal. This company also has the best prices for blast gates I have seen.