I used slide valves for the four zones and added pneumatic cylinders to control 'open/close'..

Loaded my spoil board (Trupan) and turned the thing on. 5" hg with the loose spoil board. Held real well for a skim cut (.020).

Removed the spoil board and applied melamine glue to the plenem. Flipped the spoil board and turned on the vacuum to hold down the spoil board while the glue dried.

Added a 1/4" sheet of 1 sided melamine to stop leakage through the top of the spoil board. I hadn't yet cut the top surface of the spoil board and still had to stop the vacuum long enough to position the 1/4" sheet cause it sucked down hard and fast. 8" hg. Sweet!

Oh.......

I like the pneumatic open and close.

Nice to be sucky.

Couple of questions.
Are all vacuum motors running at the same time?
What did you use for a dust filter?

Four motors (Amtek 117123) are paired. I plan using one pair (primary) to hold material until I get to the onion skin cut. I will then use the other pair (secondary) if needed as I will no doubt loose vacuum.

The white piping in the pics contain a filter (STP SA9053) that i obtained from the auto parts house. Many people feel that the spoil board acts as a filter, which it does, but I went ahead and added the above anyway.

I use a filter in mine.About every 3-4 months I need to clean it out or replace. Simple 10 minutes of insurance.

Are yours wired to come on automatic?
I'm thinking about doing that.

Great looking vac system

Wow, I really like your design, cool concept:cool:

Manual only. Gary Campbell, who is the original designer of the 'Blackbox Vac' started out with a automatic system, but soon found that trying to keep the motors running correctly, especially after cutting into the spoil board became too much of a 'moving target'.

For more info go here...
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/sho...Box-Vac-Source

Big thanks to Gary Campbell for the vac and plenum ideas!

I was commenting more on the pneumatics/vac package you had put together, good job