Home Made Vacuum Table

One of the techniques Julie has learned to use in her print making classes is silk screening.  One part of the process is to use a squeegee to apply ink on a piece of paper.  It's essential that the paper not move while you're doing this.  It's also undesirable to put tape or sticky stuff on the paper.  A vacuum table is used to hold a paper in place while applying pressure and ink.

Julie found directions for a home made vacuum table. The table is 36"x36".  I made a box using 2x4's and then screwed down a 1/4" piece of plywood on the bottom side.  The top side of the table was more tricky.

The directions called for drilling holes with a 3/32" drill bit.  Well, that's nearly a 1000 holes.  I used my neighbors drill press for a little while, but couldn't get to all the holes.  My neighbor Lindle decided to help and we drilled all the holes in one go.  We broke about 7 bits in the process.  We also wore through nearly 3 cordless drill batteries.  It was a lot of work.

The next day I put some supports in the box, sealed the lid on and drilled a hole for the vacuum hose.

Below is the lid - see all the holes?

Notice how the vacuum hose gos in the side of the box?  It really works and hold paper very still.