Well, one of my feins finally died and I needed to get back to work quickly. I discovered http://www.blackboxvac.com with some help from the forum here and learned they were in Jasper, GA. That was close enough for me to go get what I needed and be running by the end of the day rather than building something myself after waiting on shipping for parts not to mention design time.

I decided not to go back with Feins. While I found their performance acceptable, I was never thrilled with it. The most it would pull completely sealed was 6.5" Hg and about 5.5" in practical use. They did the job but I did often have to tape edges and be very careful with cut order.

I was skeptical about the Black Box vacs, I mean that's a nice chunk of change for a "black box" with 4 vac heads in it. But, having seen it now I'll say its had a lot of thought put into it and no skimping on materials. It is hooked up and is running well pulling 10" Hg on the same vac guage I used with the feins. In practical use I'm seeing 7" Hg running one stage and 9" running both stages on a full sheet. I could generally cut at about 5.5" Hg with the feins using tape to seal the edges if needed to get the sheet down.

I have videos and pictures on the way. After running about 12 sheets so far I can't speak to longevity yet but it has worked very well. I believe with the extra power I will be able to reduce some of the use of tabs in my cut files.

I'll keep you posted as I keep running it and post video links to YouTube as I get them uploaded.