sink clamping vacuam.....any good?

[al]

Thinking about one of those sink clamping vacuams from Pinske.
Only imput so far is that swanstone doesn't like them and an employee said he experienced pin holes on occasion.
Any one out there with some advice?
Thanks, AL.

[Joe Corlett]

Al:

Dani Homrich from Dani Designs, believes the vaccums are too powerful. He sells a sink clamping system. Give him a cal for more info.

Joe

[John C]

Al,
I have tried a vacuum system and found that enough suction to hold the sink down to a sheet that has a slight cup to it, is too much suction and will pull the adhesive out of the seam leaving dry spots or pin holes. I have had very good success using 8- 12" vise grips. On my clamps I removed the swivel pads on one side of the clamp and use the remaining swivel side on the face side of the sheet so as not to cause any bruising. You do not want to adjust the clamps too tight, just tight enough to get good glue squeeze out all around. These clamps are also very handy for reaching far onto a sheet to apply pressure when glueing seam reinforcement straps.
John C.

[stein]

the sink clamps from betterly work really well also.

wade

[Dani]

Sink clamping,

Some basic facts that none of the manufactures talk about. Bar clamps deflect the deck and starve the joint at each contact point the same is for vise grip clamps, the threaded rod, and vacuum. If the deck surface is deflected as little as .0045

[Steve Lefebvre]

I make a very inexpensive ($65.00) sink vacuum clamp and many fabricators use them with great sucess. I have one customer who often uses 10 to 15 at a time on commercial jobs and he has been doing so for at least 5 years now. Many of his jobs use hundreds of sinks and the Vac process is very efecient for him. He does not have any starvation issues. The process has its merits but it is not for everybody. I sometimes use the vacs in my own shop, and a lot of other times I simply put a 5 gal bucket of contact cement on the sink.
Glue starvation is a very over blown subject. The amount of adhesive left in the seam has more to do with the quality of the adhesive than any other parameter.

[Steve Lefebvre]

http://daniclamp.com/miscphoto/ss01.jpg

This may show what happens with clear acrylic, but clear acrylic is not the same as solid surface. Solid surface is a filled plastic and is many times stiffer than clear acrylic. If you take a 1" strip of both you can readily feel the difference. The clear will bend 4 times further with the same pressure. Its also important to note that solid surface adhesive does not like to adhere to clear acrylic. It easily zips apart.

[Joe Corlett]

All:

I know this is heresy, but I doubt sinks need clamping at all. Not that I've ever tried it. As long as you've got plenty of adhesive, a flat sink rim, the deck on a flat surface and a good wiggle you'll be fine.

I've clamped hundreds of sinks with a 20 ton hydraulic jack sitting on top until the glue cured. No failures in a decade or so.

You can clamp sinks and raise your house with a 20 ton hydraulic jack but you can only clamp sinks with a vaccum.

Heavily,

Joe

[al]

You guys are the best. A bunch of diverse ideas, with much obvious thought behind them, yet always an allowance for others opinions. Quite a contrast to some of the woodworking sites where they almost come to blows defending opinions.

We have been using the method with all thread thru the drain with 18"vise grips and small F clamps if the bead doesn't squeeze out evenly. The issue with deflection brought up by Dani is why I am looking to improve the process, some of the Avonite K3's will bow way down. The pinching of the edge and the built in stress is obvious now that He pointed it out. And "the help" have broken one or two decks and one sink that I know about..............

Thanks for all the advice to all. I am going to try the weight method and look into the other methods as well.

[lensmith]

Hi Al,

All of those guys who responded to your question are good guys, you might want to try a couple of methods, as you said, and see which work best for you.

Nice to have you here,

Len