BT32 Vaccum Hold Down Table Plans. Any available?

[TNWALKINGHORSE]

Hello, my older BT32 has a vacuum table that is connected to a shop vac that I have been using for years. It is made with 2 layers of ply wood with a series of channels, connected to PVC pipe, which is then connected to my shop vac. It did an excellent job until last week, when my bit slipped and sank 3/4" and cut through the top layer of ply/spoil board. Now the system is useless. Now I am trying to find my cut files that I had on a floppy (yes floppy) and can not locate it. Does anyone have or no where I can get such a file to remake this of vacuum table?

Thanks!

[Brady Watson]

It's just a series of straight lines connected at the ends. It's a good exercise in CAD/PartWorks. Leave a 3/4" border and space the squares about 1" apart - although it rarely works out perfectly. The lines need to be 1.5" apart if you use the recommended 1/2" bit to cut the grid.

Don't shortchange yourself by not trying to draw a grid. I've attached one ready to import into PW you can use for study and your machine.

-B

[TNWALKINGHORSE]

Thanks Brady! I also forgot to ask in my 1st post...what is the easiest way to remove the spoil board. My machine has 3 layers of plywood. 1 is the original bed, the other two are the current (destroyed) vacuum system that look to be gorilla glued to each other. Should I just shave them all down and make lots of saw dust or unbolt from table and start all over trying to get everything squared. The later scares me. lol Thanks again!

[Brady Watson]

Early BT32s had an AL table. Yours must be a later model with Extira MDF support board. This is larger than the early ones which were only 24x32/48 depending on model. It is designed to cover the rollers so that it doesn't have a pinch point for your fingers. It does not have to be larger than 24x32, and in fact, I prefer the smaller board because it gives you some additional clamping options on the earlier tools.

You will at the very least have to trim away down to the TOP of the bottom board to expose the cap screws that hold the support board to the powerstick. I would recommend sneaking up on this depth until you get very close. They are countersunk so you shouldn't hit anything if you are careful.

The other option is to just repair the portions that are damaged. Epoxy + wood flour filler (West System) will make a good strong filler that can be machined flush with everything else. Personally, I'd rip the whole thing out and start over. My choice would be MDO plywood as the support board and MDF or Extira MDF as the plenum layer, ultralight MDF as the bleeder...OR MDO, MDF and ultralight MDF BradyVac removable plenum for times when you need to screw things down.

There are some additional table layup schedules towards the end of the BT Assembly Guide (http://www.shopbottools.com/ShopBotDocs/files/Assembly%20PRS%20Buddy%202012%2012%2031.pdf)

Even if you redo the whole thing, it isn't that big of a deal. It would be very easy to draw the circles in the proper position for the powerstick using PW. You can measure off of the original. Easy peasy...

-B

[TNWALKINGHORSE]

Thanks for you help. I wound up shaving down slow, like you advise. Found my screws and removed. Now just getting back to putting it back together with new ply and spoil board. Thanks again for your help! :-)

[Brady Watson]

You're welcome. Nothing like taking the mystery out of things by doing it yourself...

-B