If I continue to tinker with things like this for the rest of my life then I am going to have so many random little gadgets, hardware, and misc items laying everywhere I won’t even be able to walk around my shop by the time I’m 50.
With that said, I just ordered the vacuum ejector. Can’t wait to play with it!
I plan on helping the neighbors bleed some brakes as a tester…that is my excuse and I am sticking with it.
Think I’ll share a few thoughts on using these for vacuum clamping. Obviously it works well as shown in the video, however… I think these venturi vacuum generators can produce a pretty good pressure drop (i.e. significant clamping force), but I don’t think they move a large volume of air.
As a result if you’re cutting parts out of your work piece, the clamping force may disappear as the parts are cut out (due to the vacuum “leak”) They should be great for any sort of carving operation that leaves the work piece solid though.
Of course, it is theoretically possible to make a bigger venturi to draw a larger volume of air…but you may need a really big compressor to keep up with the compressed air requirements!
Due to the above, I’m not sure it’s a great option for a full sheet lowrider. If you can get your sheet goods to seal with the table before applying vacuum it might work. I’ll note that for a full sheet lowrider, you won’t need much pressure drop to hold parts securely. You have a lot SI’s (square inches…48*96=4608) to work with, so even a 1psi vacuum will produce more than 2 tons of clamping force!
I’m thinking some vacuum pucks might be nice for those smaller jobs on the lowrider where work holding is a challenge. Maybe cnc out a gasket groove near the perimeter of a hockey puck, and a shallow pocket out the middle…
I’ve seen the venturi vacuum generators used for vacuum bagging composites. They work well in that application, and… if I can find it, I’m pretty sure I have one in a collection of stuff I was given by someone who used to do that sort of thing.
Oh yeah good point, maybe a little pod system would be better.
So, I found the venturi vacuum generator I was given… and I have some hockey pucks… I’ll need to get some gasket material… and probably some hose and fittings.
A little googling leads me to believe hockey pucks can be turned on my metal working lathe (who’d a thunk? 8^), so I’ll probably give that a try. I’d be interested to hear if anyone has thoughts on routing hard rubber though. I have no idea what sort of bit/spindle speed etc. might work.
I’ve seen 2-stage vacuum hold-down systems where a shop-vac style pump is used to evacuate most of the air, then a vacuum pump or venturi is used for the last bits.
You might try freezing the hockey pucks before machining them. Don’t know what the dimensional changes might be.
They’ll have the air lines at Lowes or Home depot in the plumbing section. They’re also used for water lines.
Here is another fun idea. I might just have to play with this one. Possibly add it to my printers to sing and dance while the bed heats up. Or add it at the end of a CNC cut job after the relay turns off the router.
Yea, I did that with my printer. Pretty fun.
Love it! Thanks for sharing!
That’s pretty sweet. I added it to my wish list. I’ve been thinking about getting a small vaccume pump, but this might suffice for now.
Holy shit!
My goodness.
Watching that is like seeing a fever dream. My Goodness that is nuts!
I wonder what that bit was that flew off in the second layer? 
So much for letting the printer run at night…
Probably that little curly part that sticks to the nozzle while it’s heating up.
Just…wow. I don’t know I could build anything that wouldn’t shake itself apart at that speed.
That looks like fun. I am not ready to build a new printer yet…but I think I need to try that extruder combo. I need to put something light on the Repeat to see how fast it can be pushed. Looks like to get anything crazy Klipper is needed though.
I put an E3D with bowden tube on my MP3DP years ago, and taking the stepper off the head did do a heck of a lot to reduce the weight. I’ve never really tried to see how fast it would move though…