Vacuum table for Buddy.

[Austin Shafer]

Hello again everyone! While waiting on the new control board to come in I have been thinking about making plans for a vacuum table for my standard 48" buddy with the 8' powerstick. I have been searching for videos/threads showing the basic setup but I cant seem to find anything. Can someone point me in the right direction where I can learn anything about making one? Videos or pictures would be amazing!

[Austin Shafer]

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Here is the stuff Im usually cutting. Pieces for playground equipment.

[Austin Shafer]

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Here are some pictures of the machine itself.

[Brady Watson]

You may find this post helpful.

This was done on one of the first BT48s. I used 3x1 AL rectangular tubing. Looks to me like you could squeeze in one of them on each side of the powerstick between the stick & rollers to feed vacuum to the underside of the table & then to your grid.

I think other BT owners have adopted this setup. There may be more pics via Search.

-B

[Ajcoholic]

Hello again everyone! While waiting on the new control board to come in I have been thinking about making plans for a vacuum table for my standard 48" buddy with the 8' powerstick. I have been searching for videos/threads showing the basic setup but I cant seem to find anything. Can someone point me in the right direction where I can learn anything about making one? Videos or pictures would be amazing!

Have you looked on the first page of the Buddy forum? There's a bit of info there...

[Austin Shafer]

So I am testing some grids and stuff with our shopvac here and it seems to work great but if I am cutting a bunch of small pieces out of a full sheet of plastic would it be able to keep all of the pieces from moving?IMG_0207.JPGIMG_0208.JPGIMG_0209.JPG

[Austin Shafer]

seems to lose a lot of hold when some holes are cut out.

[Brady Watson]

Umm...yeah. If that is ULMDF, flip it over an suck through it (BradyVac 1 config). If it isn't, put a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" ULMDF on top of the grid, seal it with foil tape around the edge an try it again. Regular MDF will not work as a bleeder unless you have a Becker or other pump that sucks more than 15 Hg" or so.

I don't know why the proper vacuum material layup/sandwich/order isn't clear. I could be that it is too simple. I don't know (I am serious...)

Without some kind of buffer to slow down the vacuum from escaping, you are going to get leakage and failure, like your pic shows. The only 2 ways around this is to have a dedicated gasketed jig that is shaped like the parts you are cutting out, or to use a bleeder board on top of the grid & pull vacuum through the entire face of that (the non-waffled ultralight MDF).

-B