How to make your own vacuum frame?

[Leonard Metcalf]

Has anyone made their own vacuum frame? Seen any plans, or have any advice. Does anyone know what the vacuum needs to be? Would love plenty of advice on this subject. I have been looking for a platemaker, but haven't had any success of late.

Regards,

Len

[Donald Miller]

Len,
I have a Nuarc vacuum frame at home in my garage. I would give it to you if you were nearer Phoenix, Az.

Having said that, there was a fellow on Ebay some years back that manufactured and sold vacuum frames. His frames consisted of a perforated top plate (sheet metal) that was supported by internal bracing between the top (perforated plate) and the sheet metal bottom. Basically the contraption had the perforated top, a solid bottom and solid sides. One of the sides had a hose connection to which one could connect a vacuum cleaner. If one had access to a sheet metal shear, sheet metal brake, and sheet metal roll former it should not be too difficult to come up with something that functions.

The vacuum does not need to be very deep. I would think that 8 to 14 inches of vacuum would suffice.

[Peter De Smidt]

In Petersen's "Photo Equipment You Can Make" Vol 1 there are plans for a vacuum frame.

[anotherJoe]

Check out Colin Graham's vacuum frame here:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...t=44441&page=4

[Leonard Metcalf]

I found these simple instructions for making a vacuum frame.

http://www.grafiskeksperimentarium.d...uum_Frame.html

Thanks for all the responses. Now to find an appropriate vacuum pump.

Len

[Dan Schmidt]

I have always wanted to try out these pumps

http://www.clarksol.com/html/prodspecsMBPump.cfm

small and possibly quiet.

[John Powers]

Len,

The printing business has changed so much with digital that plate burners and other types of vacuum frames have gone to scrap. Some times these go in the trash, but there are also companies that pickup and salvage this used equipment. They are always happy to sell very good pieces for prices above what they would get in India for scrap. For $35 I got a German 30x40 inch light table that raises, lowers and adjusts angle. I also got an oak type cabinet with 24 compartmentalized drawers, hand build in 1928. It is a beautiful piece of furniture.

You might inquire at local printers, both stand alone and corporate printing departments, where this sort of thing is done in your country. I was surprised to find a major national player in this business an hour’s drive away.

John

[Drew Wiley]

I'd check ads for used graphics equipment. But vacuum frames are quite easy to make.
One word of caution: the vacuum draw should not be excessive. I've seen a number of
instances where homemade frames, particularly using large holes like pegboard, actually caused a visible indentation in the emulsion due to excess vacuum. If your
device is truly flat and doesn't deflect, it doesn't take much to hold sheet material.
However, a peristaltic vaccum pump is inferior to a rotary one, because it tends to
jiggle the surface (while the draw of a rotary pump is fairly contstant). It is really handy to have either a vacuum with variable power or something like they use on
graphics easels, with a pressure bleed-off valve.

[gregstidham]

One observation about vacuum amount.

I used to operate a copy camera with a vacuum surface that held down a halftone screen over the velox negative paper. When the brushes for the vacuum died, I would use a small handheld household vac to fill in until I could fix the brushes on the commercial copy camera vac. This tiny household vac did the job just as well. A flat surface area doesn't need a lot of vacuum pressure to work well.

[Jeffrey Arthur]

Bostick Sullivan have a how to build one on their site that I used. It cost me about $100.00 to build. I can't click on the link on their articles site right now for some reason.