john lucas
AAW Forum Expert
I was answering a question in the forum about vacuum adaptors and thought that I should really put the answer here. If you want to try vacuum chucks there are some fantastic articles in American Woodturner about ten years ago or more. If you do a search of American Woodturner for vacuum chucks it brings up seven articles. The first few back in 2003 were extremely useful. I built my first one from an Automotive car compressor from plans in those articles. Since then found a used Ghast pump ( that I was able to size because of the directions in those articles). I have tried several ways to adapt the vacuum pumps to my lathes. So here are ways to do it.
The first is a drawing of a wooden version of the commercial EZ vacuum adaptor. If you have any questions on how I built this just ask. This is the best way to go if your spindle has holes in it and won't conduct a vacuum. I know most lathes don't have that problem but a few do.
The second one shown with the Powermatic handwheel is an old vacuum adaptor sold by Nova to adapt a standard shop vac to the lathe. It had some holes in it to bleed air so it would not burn up your shop vac. When I started using vacuum pumps I plugged those holes. This adaptor is simply glued into a bearing. The Nova had the handwheel counterbored to fit the OD of the bearing. I took the handwheel of my Powermatic to a machinist and had it counterbored to match the bearing. I simply put a closed-cell foam gasket between the bearing and handwheel, turn on the pump and I'm ready to go. Sometimes I have to push on the bearing after I turn on the pump to get a really good seal but it works perfectly.
I took this same idea and adapted it by using standard hose connectors. Threaded to 1/2" on one side and barbed on the other to fit in the hose. I simply insert these into a bearing with a 1/2" ID. You do have to turn the threads down a hair to get a snug fit but that's easily done on the wood lathe. epoxy this into the bearing and you're ready to go.
The last photo is how I set it up on my Delta midi lathe. Just turned a wooden insert to fit in the handwheel that accepts the bearing. Put the foam gasket in and I'm ready to go.
I prefer the bearings to the EZ adaptor because if you need to use your knock-out bar you don't have to remove anything. It's also a lot faster than installing the EZ adaptor.
The first is a drawing of a wooden version of the commercial EZ vacuum adaptor. If you have any questions on how I built this just ask. This is the best way to go if your spindle has holes in it and won't conduct a vacuum. I know most lathes don't have that problem but a few do.
The second one shown with the Powermatic handwheel is an old vacuum adaptor sold by Nova to adapt a standard shop vac to the lathe. It had some holes in it to bleed air so it would not burn up your shop vac. When I started using vacuum pumps I plugged those holes. This adaptor is simply glued into a bearing. The Nova had the handwheel counterbored to fit the OD of the bearing. I took the handwheel of my Powermatic to a machinist and had it counterbored to match the bearing. I simply put a closed-cell foam gasket between the bearing and handwheel, turn on the pump and I'm ready to go. Sometimes I have to push on the bearing after I turn on the pump to get a really good seal but it works perfectly.
I took this same idea and adapted it by using standard hose connectors. Threaded to 1/2" on one side and barbed on the other to fit in the hose. I simply insert these into a bearing with a 1/2" ID. You do have to turn the threads down a hair to get a snug fit but that's easily done on the wood lathe. epoxy this into the bearing and you're ready to go.
The last photo is how I set it up on my Delta midi lathe. Just turned a wooden insert to fit in the handwheel that accepts the bearing. Put the foam gasket in and I'm ready to go.
I prefer the bearings to the EZ adaptor because if you need to use your knock-out bar you don't have to remove anything. It's also a lot faster than installing the EZ adaptor.