Making a vaccum hose adapter

I needed a way to hook my shop vac hose to the square tube aluminum extrusion I recently made into a manifold for the Loc-Line tubing I'm using as a vacuum system for my mini mill. Here's how I did it.

Software used was EMC2, the Enhance Machine Controller, on Ubuntu 6.06, Dapper Drake:

www.linuxcnc.org
www.ubuntu.com

Lathe is a Sherline 4400 CNC mini lathe. Mill is a Sherline 5400 CNC mini mill:

www.sherline.com

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Sherline
• mill
• lathe
• minimill
• minilathe
• machining
• vacuum
• emc2
• linux
• cnc

[baloneyjazz]

nice video. Where to get that black vacuum hose? What about those three cute adjustable nossles?

[gfixler]

@baloneyjazz The black vacuum hose came with the little shop vac. As for the blue and orange adjustable hoses, they're called Loc-Line. You can find them in some stores, but also in many places online. The store I found them in has closed, and they only had 3 of them. There's a place on the manifold for a 4th one whenever I remember to order it.

[randomusernumber1]

you know that making that thing out of steel would have taken you only an hour right ??? and why the hell are you using a mill to make a round howl

[gfixler]

@randomusernumber1 - This mini mill and lathe setup can do softer steel, but it's tough work for it. I don't bother. I also have a pile of this plastic sitting in a bin, waiting for something to do. I don't have any bits as large as the hole I cut, and I've cut large holes out on my drill press before, and they never come out very well. This was nice and clean and perfectly precise, and I could do it in my office late at night while my 3 neighbors - who go to bed early - slept.

[telesniper2]

you could adjust your speed in order to avoid getting rings. Did you mod your lathe to have spindle motor speed control (an unusual mod)?

[gfixler]

telesniper2 - unfortunately, I have no spindle speed control. This also means I can't do things like automated tapping. Perhaps some day.

[bigchad007]

Great job!! Part turned out nice looking.

[adisharr]

@randomusernumber1 The boring tool he's using is too short to make the required hole diameter. Also, there's no clearance behind the chuck to make the hole.  There are always better ways to do things but in a home shop it's frequently not about making the part as efficiently as possible.

[randomusernumber1]

@adisharr my master machinist skills aside , the question was why use a mill in order to make a round hole when he could have just done it on the lathe he used in the beginning , was it because he was to lazy to move the part from the mill to the lathe or did i really need to reply to your comment at all and u though i was saying the guy is incompetent , witch i have not meant at all ,anyways peace out and remember , pedobear is watching u from a distance (damn youtube character limit

[adisharr]

@randomusernumber1 He certainly needs a steel vacuum adapter. Delrin (which is extremely easy to machine as I'm sure you know, is just not good enough. Things should not be easy to make. Hell why not just make it out of stainless or titanium? I'm sure you're a master machinist where you work as are all the kids that chime in with your attitude.

[baloneyjazz]

@gfixler thanks!

I tried to buy the nice light hose for a shopvac but couldn't find it anywhere. I wound up buying hose for a pool at 9 bucks a foot! Nice hose though.

Now I'm working out how i'm going to deliver the vacuum very close to the endmill on my new machine.

[fastgs1]

Nice work. Besides the tapering, do you think you could have done this by hand with lesser time? Possibly setting up proper stops and a systematic approach could have served more efficient...