New Vacuum Table! #67 - Littleton, NC

[MetalHead]

Maybe I should auction it off ...... Can I goto jail for that

[myozman]

Stan,
I build Mame Arcades for little profit, I just like building them for friends. Here is the latest. Let me know if you have any questions.

Mike

Originally Posted by salewis

I'm up for the task now that we are "what you call experts"...

"Ex is a has-been and a spurt is a drip under pressure."

The sheets cover proprietary stuff just like at my garage proprietary stuff covers my MGB

Yeah, we may find the flat black doesn't release dust well.

Retro.... talk about all the retro stuff that we threw out of the Vid Game console...

Ted wants to build a MAME vid game console, will use the coin door for kicks.. Any ideas on what we could use to cut the console parts with

[crashingsucks]

Nice!! I guess the 1st will be a new box for the mm guts, but the 2nd will be for me to build a game Machine. I never had enough quarters back in the day, and soon I won't need them!

Thanks I am sure I will be in touch for some help.
Ted

[domino11]

Mike,
Nice machine!

[jhiggins7]

Stan,

Nice looking MechMate. Congratulations on completing your MechMate and on earning Serial #67.

Here is the Updated Builder's Log.

Please verify the cutting dimensions. I just assumed that the machine was built to handle that large sheet of MDF you mentioned.

Also, please review your entry and let me know any changes you want to make.

[salewis]

Myozman, I'm sure crashingsucks will have some questions.....

[salewis]

Unfortunately that really hasn't been the case.. we have been cutting molds for uav/rpv projects, aluminum dash panels, aluminum wing skins for full scale aircraft....

Now for the update...adding a vacuum table... grid cut into 1.5 inch Baltic ply. Now for some plumbing work....

Will post pics when I get to a real 'puter instead on my smartphone

[salewis]

now for the pics....

[smreish]

Now that has the appearance of a vacuum system being fabricated.
Well done!

[KenC]

how wide is the grooves?
they look narrow...

[polishpickle]

I just use a .5 bit for mine and .375 deep the air evens out on my ultra lite mdf spoil board. he air flows so good through it that I had to use strips of 6mm sintra to keep it in each zone.

[salewis]

grooves are 0.25 by 0.5 deep. We are planning on using two 2.0" outlets per zone to the vacuum system.

We have two Lighthouse vacuum motors, but may go with the Fein shop vacuums instead.

We will put one piece of 5 x 10 x 0.75 udf on top and then section the zones with 0.25 by 0.75 grooves. Lastly, we plan on filling the grooves in the UDF with polyester resin to cut down on vacuum loss when using only 1-2 zones.

The zones are done so that we have the option of holding 1/8th (1 x 4), 1/4 (2x4), 1/2 (4x4), full sheets of plywood, and lastly the weird 1x10 zone.

There are a couple of things that I'm not really happy over. First is the loss of almost 2.25 inches of z, but our "workload" has changed more towards sheet work and less molds (which is why we built the machine in the first place). The other is that once finished it makes moving the machine that much harder (picture a slab of 1.5 baltic ply laminated with .75 udf that is 5x10 feet).

Still swaying back and forth over which vacuum system to use: Fein or Central Vacuum motors.

Stan

[KenC]

1/4" deep groove is a tat too shallow for my liking, but you can always make yourself another if it doesn't perform I can see the advantage, the grid board will last longer.
Mine is 1/2", No zone. I know it is impossible to get rid of "inter-zone" leaks unless dedicated grid boards (with sealed edges) for each zone. Which will complicate things. In another word, I'm too lazy...

I can still "zone" my vacuum table by covering the exposed board with some vinyl floor sheets which cost me less than 10USD, consider them as consumables.

Central Vacuum motor gets my vote anytime, but you gotta choose wisely.... BTW, which central Vacuum motor are you looking at?

[salewis]

Btw the grooves are 0.5 deep. I was considering cutting with a 0.5 bit.

Unfortunately once I put the udf on top... it is a done deal because it will be glued down to prevent vacuum loss. Unless I want to mill off 0.75 off udf :-Q

I will attempt to seal the edges around and between zones by cutting a groove through the udf and filling with resin.

The motor are lighthouse 116765-13 120 volt aka LH6765-13. I would have rather access to 220/230 Vac but don't so my options limited.

[polishpickle]

I cut a groove in mine and glued in a 6mm sintra strip this seals the bleed through

[smreish]

Jerry,
I just cut a perimeter border in the table areas and then filled with plastic body filler.

Great idea.

[KenC]

LH6765-13 is a good choice. Just pay attention to your wall plug amperage rating especially when you have two motors running at the same time..

[salewis]

Probably going to have to run the motors on two circuits.

Just what is needed MORE POWER!