At the Cordefactum lecture in late may 2014 I showed some vacuum techniques I use in my daily work; the most useful ones for me are clearly related to holding the workpieces i’m working on.
Key advantages, compared to traditional clamping methods, are:
– Speed
– Ergonomy
– Stabilituy
– Access to all the surface
– Even distribution of holding pressure
The fixture i use the most is by far the one pictured below:
It’s basically a big suction cup in a rotating vise, mounted on an adjustable post; on it you can hold a whole guitar, as such:
Or you can make fixtures to work on parts; with MDF, for example, you can even use the ‘breathing’ of the base to hold a top or back without extra clamping:
Working every day on such demanding tasks, all the help you can get is welcome, and these fixtures have made a huge difference making many procedures more efficient but especially more sustainable for my body in the long run. It’s not worth the investment as a basic tool for beginners, yet various professional colleagues that i showed it to are starting to use similar setups in their daily work.
