BradyVac: Vacuum plenum file
creator
Overview...Brady Watson has come up with a
great idea
for making vacuum plenums that can be custom sized and removed from the table
when not needed. They involve cutting a grid in the top of a sheet of Trupan or
other low-density material and then flipping the sheet over, placing in over a
vacuum hose fitting drilled through the table top, and machining off the top to
expose a more porous surface. This program creates a custom grid file sized to
your project. (updated 5/10/07 ... Fixed typo in SO command causing a
parameter count error)
Notes...This is NOT meant to be an all-purpose vacuum grid design
tool but just lays out the simplest grid possible with the least options, based
on Brady's experience with lots of vacuum systems. It's about as simple of an
interface as we could come up with...maybe too simple?
Contact info...Bill Young
Download size...36k
Project Type...Program
Additional equipment/software required...None
Special instructions...Most of the settings are hard coded...the
border around the edge is 3/4", it's cut with a 1/2" bit that's zeroed at the
material surface, and the grooves are all 1/4" deep. And if you select the "cut
to size" option the cut depth for the outside cut can’t be more than the bit
diameter...if so it cuts it in multiple passes.
Known Issues...
Confidence...
Completeness...
Download the BradyVac Creator
Confidence is a measure of how far along a project
is in the opinion of the person that created it. If it only has 1 star then it's
very rough, more likely to not work than to work correctly. 4 stars means that
they think it's ready for prime time and just needs a little more feedback or
testing. A 5 means that it's all done...you won't see any "5 star" projects in
ShopBot Labs because at that point it's ready for release!
Completeness really goes hand in hand with Confidence and is the
measure of how complete they feel the Project download is. It could include
important things like if there are instructions or help files available, but
also might reflect if there are sample files or even simple things like a lack
of icons or graphics.