Vacuum Plate Workholding

We had a job that came up where we had to machine a thin (1/4" thick) plate that was 22" by 13". Both sides were to be machined with large material removal and 3D profiling. The double sided tape or super glue method could have been used to clamp the part but we opted to invest in a vacuum plate/chuck by Pierson Workholding. The vacuum base uses a venturi to turn compressed air into a vacuum. For this particular part the vacuum chuck provided roughly 3100 pounds of hold down force. This was plenty to make us feel comfortable that we could increase machining feedrates without the part slipping. A vacuum plate is a must have tool when machining thin parts.