Thing A Week 14: Silicone Tea Cup Cover Pewter Charms

Last week I made some silicone tea covers to help with the steeping process, this week I made some pewter charms to go inside the little indentation that I made in the top of the design. Using the process I have come to think of “making things in pewter” I used some mold max 60 (see here for the process), and made some lovely little toppers.

 

The nice thing about this design is that I can make any top charm I want.  Even a Bernie Sanders one…

Basically any small charm with the appropriate little T shapped bottom bit will fit into the tea topper.  I am going to have to think of some cool tea related things, but right now I just did some cat ears, a snail shell, and soon a tiny Bernie Sanders head.

At some point I will probably put some of these in my store.

 

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Thing A Week 14: Silicone Tea Cup Cover Pewter Charms

Last week I made some silicone tea covers to help with the steeping process, this week I made some pewter charms to go inside the little indentation that I made in the top of the design. Using the process I have come to think of “making things in pewter” I used some mold max 60 (see here for the process), and made some lovely little toppers.

 

The nice thing about this design is that I can make any top charm I want.  Even a Bernie Sanders one…

Basically any small charm with the appropriate little T shapped bottom bit will fit into the tea topper.  I am going to have to think of some cool tea related things, but right now I just did some cat ears, a snail shell, and soon a tiny Bernie Sanders head.

At some point I will probably put some of these in my store.

 

Do you want to help me continue to bring you great projects, while also getting great rewards?  Then support me on Patreon!

Become a Patron!

Thank you!

Thing A Week 3: Casting An Adult Toy In Silicone

As part of my new years resolution to make a new thing every week this year, I have decided to make the third weeks project, casting an adult toy in silicone.

Last week I sculpted an adult toy in clay, this week I am going to cast it in silicone.  I am using a two part mold, made from the same thing I intend to cast the toy in, Dragon Skin 30 platinum cure silicone.

The first thing I had to do is put some spru’s on the model so that it would sit up above so I could get the first half of the mold under the clay model.  This will also give me a place to pour in silicone later to make the final toy.

Then I built a little box around the toy.  I found it helpful to use one single piece of cardboard, so you only have a single seam to close up around the edges.  Be sure you fully seal all the way around the bottom, I used blue painters tape, and some extra clay to keep the corners strong.  I used packing tape to seal up the one corner seam.

Give all sides of the clay model a good spray of mold release, as well as the box, and the floor.  Hold it about 12 inches away from give it a light coat, wait 5 minutes and then do it again.  MAKE SURE YOU GET EVERY SURFACE.  But don’t put too much on or you will get strange surface artifacts on the final object.

Mix up a big batch of silicon, you can use an online calculator to figure out how much you will need.  I use a vacum chamber to get the bubbles out, depending on what you are using for your mold, you may or may not need to do this step.

The finished product.  This particular silicone has a pretty decent pot life, so you don’t have to rush, but you shouldn’t wait too long or it will start to harden in the cup.

Next pick a spot, and pour slowly.  Be sure to pour a very small stream so that it will not trap bubbles in the silicone.  I poured into that little hole on the left, and took my time allowing it to slowly fill up all the gaps, while pushing out any air.

Now wait for it to set up, I waited overnight.  Things like set time, pot life, and other important facts about your silicone will be on the box when you buy it.

after the silicone has set I cut in some key holes so that when I cast the other side it will be hard to mis-align the mold.  I used an X-acto knife to cut them out.

Mix up another big batch of silicone, make sure you spray on some more mold release, and do the same thing again.

After it sets up, remove the cardboard and see how your mold came out.

After I used an X-acto knife to clean up the holes, and the edges.

Clean out your mold, make sure you get all the clay, and all the dust, and everything else.  Spray the inside with mold release, and then close up your mold, and I use rubber bands to make sure it stays put together.

I used some pigment to make the next batch of dragon skin 30 blue.  Removed the air bubbles, and slowly slowly filled the mold making sure to allow the air bubbles to escape.  I ended up having to cut two small air holes (the square blue holes below) to let the last little bit of air out.

Give the sides of the mold a couple taps, and let it set up overnight.  When you wake up, take the rubber bands off and see your new baby!

I used an razor blade to cut the spru’s off, and clean up around the pour holes.

As you can see this left some small defects.  They are pretty smooth, but I am going to try a third casting where I use a different technique to try and make it so that the entire mold can be filled from one end.  Resulting in far fewing pour holes, and better air bubble removal.

And just like that, you have your own sex toy!  The total cost for this project was about $50.  Which is what you would pay for a high end sex toy.  The fun bit is though that you can re-use the clay to sculpt anything you want, and you can make as many of these toys as you want (as you now have the mold).  So future toys will be much cheaper.

 

Silicon Casting A Wax Model

Lets say you just spent a long time carving out a wax model that you plan to cast in metal, you know that your wax model will be destroyed when you cast it, but you really like and want to be able to save it.  Silicon Casting to the rescue!

 

You will need the following:

your wax model (or anything you want to copy)

A form to hold the liquid silicon

some liquid silicon (I used Dragon skin 10 from smooth on)

A vacuum chamber and pump (this is not needed, but will greatly improve your casting)

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First glue your wax model to the bottom of your form, unless you are going to suspend the item (if you want both sides cast), if you are doing that you will have to cut it in half later, look on youtube for tips on this, I did a simple one sided cast.

The mixing process for the silicon is pretty simple, follow the mixing ratio’s for your silicon.  In my case it was a 1 to 1 mix.  Follow the instructions as each one is a bit different.

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Once you mix it together, give it some time in the vacuum chamber (how long will depend on how long your silicon takes to set up, you don’t want to wait too long and have it harden in the mixing cup!), then pour it slowly into your form, starting from a low point and letting the silicon find its own level. Go slow, and try not to introduce more bubbles.

 

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I also cast a simple silicon disc, just to see what would happen, it came out like a super tough, super stretchy cup coaster.  I might use this technique later to cast gaskets and stuff like that.

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I found that quickly running a torch over the top pops most of the surface bubbles.  Very quickly run it over the top, never stop moving, and only do it once or twice.  Too hot and you will harden the surface.  Keep the torch far away, and move very quickly.  There will be a couple bubbles left, but most will pop before the silicon hardens.

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Next melt your wax and pour it in!

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Don’t melt your wax in a mason jar…this jar later broke, use a pyrex jar.

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The blue wax hardening.

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Some waxes melt better than others, the blue wax didn’t melt well, but the green wax I had was perfect!

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Air bubbles from the blue wax, it just didn’t like being melted.

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You can see that it copies every little detail!

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I made another one just for fun.

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That’s it!  I recently purchased some food safe silicon, which I am going to use for chocolate casting!  This is a really simple and easy process, I can’t wait to try it some more.

Home Lost Wax Casting On The Cheap: Step Six, The Kiln

Sooner or later I had to tackle the big problem in home casting…the Kiln. I don’t know why I was so afraid of this step, perhaps it had something to do with the idea of building a box that can easily get up to 1200 C (Over 2100 f), or the electrical work, or the unfamiliarity of the whole project. But in retrospect it was super easy, and I have the internet to thank for that.

I am deeply indebted to a number of online sources for the knowledge I gleaned in how to make this kiln (I will list them all at the end), but first and foremost this instructable by Sure Hacksalot was my bible, my savior, and more importantly my safety blanket that calmed my worries. I honestly can not thank this person enough as he has made it possible for me to build myself a kiln that does everything I want for a small fraction of the cost of a commercial model.

These are not step by step instructions, for that see Sure Hacksalot’s instructable, as he has done a much better job than I ever could in laying out the steps.

If you are like me, the idea of building your own kiln is a bit daunting, I mean the damn thing is going to get really really really hot, and there are electronics, and electricity, and did I mention the really hot…yea, but in essence what you are doing is building a tiny box, and keeping all the heat inside it.  It’s not very hard, no really, its pretty easy.  Screw your courage to the sticking place and charge forth!

I put in links to where I purchased some of this stuff, you can get it many places though

You will need the following: 

a length of Kanthal A1 resistance wire (I used 25 feet of 16g for my element, this wire is used because it can achieve the high temps needed)  Buy

some K23 refractory fire bricks (I used two different shapes) Buy here and here.

Some threaded rod, and angle iron (got at home depot)

Some nuts, bolts and washers (had laying around)

A PID temp controller (I used the AGPTek Dual Digital SSR) Buy

A K Type thermocouple rated for at least 1200C (Make sure to get one with a long enough probe to fit through your fire brick) buy

A 25A rated solid state relay (be sure to get AC not DC) Buy

Some hefty gauge wire (had some laying around)

Tools needed:

a Philips head screwdriver

a hand saw (not a power saw)

a Dremel tool with the router head and bits (not technically needed but super helpful)

a drill bit the same size as your thermocouple probe

 

The Heating Element:

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The heating element is a type of wire that gets very hot when you run electricity through it.  It uses a special kind of wire called Kanthal A1 wire.  You have to “size” your element so that it draws enough electricity to heat up hot enough, but not so much you blow out the breaker.

First figure out the maximum amp rating of your breaker, mine was 15.

Next determine the voltage rating for your home mine was 120.

You can not draw more Amps than your breaker can handle, and if you want to be safe and have anything else on when you are using your kiln, its a good idea to stay well below the maximum.

To figure out how many Amps your element will use, use the following math formulas:

Amps = volts / Ohms

Watts = volts X amps

Ohms = volts /Amps

Ohms is a measure of resistance, to figure that out you need to consult a chart for Kanthal A1 wire.  The resistance or Ohms is per foot, so different thickness wires, and different length wires will give you different resistance.

I used 16g wire, which has a resistance of .324 ohms per foot.  Using the formula above Ohms = 120 volts/15 amps = 8.  However I don’t want to peg my kiln at the max, so I am going to use 7.3.  Since my 16 g wire has .324 ohms per foot  I take 7.3 (my max ohms) /.324 (ohms per foot of my wire) = 22.5 feet of wire.

I measured out 22.5 feet of wire and then built a bootleg wire coil maker out of a piece of threaded rod, two nuts, a wrench, and a piece of wood (to save my fingers, this stuff is stiff).  I basically secured one end of the wire between two nuts on one side of the rod, then used the nuts to attach the wrench to turn it.  I used the chunk of wood to hold the wire close to the coil as I slowly turned it with the wrench.  I used 1/4 inch rod, which works well.
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Once you are done, uncoil the wire from the rod, it will spring open a bit, but you will still have to “unscrew” the rod from the coil, the whole process took about 10 minutes.  Next you will need to stretch the coil, this is because the coils can not touch each other or they will short out.  Stretch the coil by pulling on it until there is about 2 wire thickness’ between each coil.  It will be significantly longer after you do this.

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The Kiln Housing:

This is actually the easiest part of the build.  You are basically playing with blocks.  Some things to keep in mind.  Refractory fire bricks are VERY fragile.  They are very brittle and break easily.  They are also very light, and easy to cut.  They also produce a dust that will give you serious lung problems if you breath it, so a safety mask is a MUST for this step.  Frequent clean up is good, do the cutting outside, they make a lot of dust.

The design I came up with is a compromise between having enough space to do more than one flask at a time (see the skinny side walls), having enough space to actually fit my entire element into the kiln, and keeping the kiln small enough so that it will get hot enough.

Use angle iron and threaded rods to hold the kiln together.  I used a Dremel with a routing attachment to route out the channels for the element, I left two long straight sections of wire that poke out through the back (be sure they are not touching the metal frame or you will short out the system.)  That small hole in the back brick is where the thermocouple will poke through.  I suggest you only let a couple mm of the probe stick through to keep it from oxidizing and melting (it gets hot in the kiln!).
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The threaded rod along the top here is installed temporarily, see below for the final configuration.

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Once the element is placed in the kiln you will need to pin it down to keep it from moving when it heats up (hot things expand).  I used stee “T” pins with the end cut off, they seem to work well.

 


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Use more than you think you will need, the element will move a lot.

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The connectors for the back, the Kanthal Wire connects to one side of the bolt, and the copper to the other, this helps to keep that connection cool.  I used a big thick piece of copper wire here, because these ends of the resistance wire get very hot, so having something that can take the heat is nice.  The wire leads will connect to the very end of the copper rod, which by then has cooled enough to connect the insulated wire to.

The Electronic Temperature Controller:

This for me was the most intimidating part.  Mostly because the parts came with Chinese instruction manuals that looked like they had been written in Italian google translated into Mandarin, and then google translated into English…the internet was vital to understanding this.  See the instructable linked above for a good wiring diagram, but in essence here is how it works.

A thermocouple is connected to the PID (the black box), the thermocouple tells the PID what temp it is in your kiln, the PID turns on and off the juice by using the Solid State Relay (the white thing) to keep the temp you set, the SSR is connected to a heat sink from a computer because it gets hot and the heat sink helps dissipate that heat.  You will need some kind heat sink for your SSR as it gets very hot and over heating will limit its life.

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The red and blue wires are from the thermocouple

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This diagram is actually vital to understand, let me see if I can translate (because the instructions that come with the PID certainly do not help)

1 and 2 are the power, this PID will accept between 90 and 280 volts

3 is the negative lead to the SSR

4 is the positive lead to the SSR

5 and 6 are for a second SSR if you want to wire up more than one element (I didn’t use this feature)

7 and 8 are the + and – for the thermocouple

9-12 i have no idea, I didn’t use these.

Your PID will most likely be different, just follow its wiring diagram and you should be fine.  The ground from the cord is attached to the frame.  Obviously there are exposed wires in the back of this, so don’t go grabbing them when the kiln is on.  Also the elements themselves, aside from being hot also are electrified so be sure when putting things in the kiln you don’t jam a metal pair of tongs into them.

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For a door I used an extra brick and cut it to size, it fits snugly in the opening and rests on a another brick.  This other brick is useful for placing things you recently took out/will put into the kiln on as well.

 

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My messy studio.

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One ruined crucible and some melted brass, this baby cooks!  I easily got it up to 1200c.

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It took me a long time to feel ok about building this.  I had to read a lot on the internet to feel comfortable enough to build it, but in the end it really wasn’t that hard.  If I had to do it again I think I would feel much more comfortable about the whole process.

Safety:

You will need high temp gloves, like welding gloves, the kiln gets so hot you literally can’t get your hand near it.  I also suggest a full face mask, or at the least eye protection.  You will also need a leather or heavy canvas apron, wear closed toe shoes, and have good ventilation.

Resources:

Start Here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Casting-Rings-From-Startup-to-Finish/

http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive/201501/msg00035.htm

 

General Casting Tips:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Lost-Wax-Casting/

Kanthal A1 Wire Info:

http://heatingelements.hitempproducts.com/Asset/The-Kanthal-Furnace-Mini-Handbook—Metric-version-.pdf

http://www.free-cigs.com/Kanthal-A1-Resistance-Wire-AWG-20-22-24-26-28-30-32-33-34–3-Feet_p_155.html

Help With Your PID:

 

http://www.joppaglass.com/elements/kiln_control/ur_own.html

http://www.joppaglass.com/

How to size your element:

http://knifedogs.com/archive/index.php/t-26893.html

http://www.duralite.com/kiln-furnace-studio.htm

http://www.euclids.com/Html%20pages/element-design.htm

http://www.alloyavenue.com/vb/archive/index.php/t-1964.html?s=e1aa591fadbb38282af2bb731828fc04

http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?21072-Heat-treat-oven-How-to-design-and-calculate-the-heating-elements

Total Cost for this project was: $225.41 (even the cheapest used kiln on craigslist I could find was more than this.)

Home Lost Wax Casting On The Cheap: Step Five, Vacuum Plate

There are two kinds of casting people normally do at home in regards to lost wax.  They either use a centrifuge, or a vacuum plate.  In a centrifugal setup the hot metal is poured into a special crucible, and then spun madly to fling the hot metal out into the molded investment.  See below.

Or vacuum plate casting, where the hot metal is poured down into the molded investment and then a vacuum is used to suck the air out of the investment making sure that the hot metal gets into all the little nooks and crannies. See below.

I am going vacuum plate, because its slightly easier to fit into my current sized (aka: small) studio.

The basic idea is you have a flat metal surface with a high temp silicon rubber gasket, you somehow get a small hole in the base of that flat area for the vacuum hose to come up under the flask/gasket combo, turn on the vacuum pump, put the flask with hot investment on top, pour in molten metal.

I got almost all of the stuff for this project out of dumpsters, so I started by cleaning up an old nasty board I found.

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I cut it roughly 10 inches along one side, with the assumption that the “business area” is about a 4x4in square centered around the center of the block, so this is plenty big.  Try to get the edges and tops as flat as possible, I used a rotary disk sander with some 120 grit on this for a couple minutes to clean it up nice and smooth.

Next I dry fit the “plumbing” I used 1/4 inch brass NPT (means they have air tight pipe thread on them, which you want) fitting. These included the following parts:

dixon valve ttb75 ptfe industrial sealant tap ($2)

Anderson Metals Brass NPT Pipe Fitting, Barstock street Tee 1/4″ female Pipe x 1/4″ Male pipe X 1/4″ female Pipe ($5)

a 4 inch piece of Red Brass Pipe Fitting Nipple Schedule 40 Seamless 1/4″ NPT male pipe ($4)

and a stainless steel (they were out of brass) 1/4″ NPT pipe mushroom style cap ($1)

A 1/4″ npt threaded ball valve to Barb ($3)

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The top threaded part is “up” so that will be what sticks up through the plate to suck the air out of the flask.  You will notice that I have placed a large section of pipe that goes “down.”  The reason I did that is because if there is a catastrophic flask failure and molten metal pours down into the hole it will flow straight down into the pipe instead of down the hose into the vacuum pump jacking it all up.  The square sides on the valve make it fit really well later in the process, so if you can find that kind do so.

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When you do the final fit, be sure to wrap all the threads with the ptfe seal tape to get a strong airtight seal.

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Next I measured a channel into the side of the board big enough to hold all the plumbing.

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Be sure your plumbing will fit into the notch, and rough it out a bit more with sandpaper or a chisel if it needs more space.

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Next measure the steel plate and cut a small hole in the middle of it (I used a jewelers saw) big enough to hold the threaded end of your plumbing fixture.  Line up the plate, and mark on the wood where it goes, then jam your plumbing contraption into the notch.  This is a stainless steel plate I had laying around that is a little under 2 mm thick.

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You can see that it sticks up just enough to go through the metal plate, and then I affixed it in place with two screws.

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Here is the bottom, as you can see the ball valve has enough space to swing to both side.  Two more screws are used to keep it rock solid.

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Stick the small threaded end through the plate, and use some silicon caulk, or in my case some e6000 glue left over from the kiln vent hood.  Be sure to get a good seal and have it bulge out so it completely fills the gap and makes an air tight seal to the plate.  The plate itself is not affixed to the wood in case it ever needs to be changed out.

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Be sure to let it dry fully, I used two coats to get a really good seal.

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Let it dry overnight before doing anything else.  It stinks, put it in a well ventilated area.  Next I built some simple legs on the thing that would keep it sturdy and allow for the bottom drain pipe to stand up without hitting the table.

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Here is what it looks like with the vacuum hose attached.

 

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The four screws allow you to tug on the hose without anything moving around.  Next I used a high temp backing silicon pad to make the base seal, another thicker high temp silicon sheet will be added in the future to absorb the heat of a prepared flask, cut the hole just big enough to surround the glue you used.

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The only thing left to do was to fire it up and test it out.  I have a vacuum chamber that I built with a vacuum gauge but this is just the plate and I didn’t know exactly how to measure if it was pulling a strong vacuum or not, until I remembered that water will boil in a vacuum, so I took pyrex storage dish and made a quick vacuum chamber and put a small glass of water inside.

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It works!

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Materials used:

 

Found wood

Dixon valve ttb75 ptfe industrial sealant tap ($2)

Anderson Metals Brass NPT Pipe Fitting, Barstock street Tee 1/4″ female Pipe x 1/4″ Male pipe X 1/4″ female Pipe ($5)

a 4 inch piece of Red Brass Pipe Fitting Nipple Schedule 40 Seamless 1/4″ NPT male pipe ($4)

and a stainless steel (they were out of brass) 1/4″ NPT pipe mushroom style cap ($1)

A 1/4″ npt threaded ball valve to Barb ($3)

High Temp Silicon Baking Sheet

e6000 glue

wood screws

Zeny® Single-Stage 3,5CFM 5 Pa Rotary Vane Vacuum Pump 3 CFM 1/4HP HVAC Air tool R410a R134, blue ($53.00)

Vacuum Hose

Tools used:

Hand Saw

Utility Knife

Jewelers Saw

Drill with Drill Bit

Rotary Sander

Cost:

Total cost $68 (stuff I had to buy is priced above, everything else I had or found)

Buying a vacuum pump was a bummer, but couldn’t find one cheap or used around me, the rest was simple plumbing and some found wood.  This was really easy and can basically be used for all sorts of things.  I might end up putting a fine mesh over the vacuum hole just to keep anything from being sucked in.

I looked up a vacuum plate online, and new ones go for $400+ and they don’t even come with a vacuum pump (!).  So getting away with this for under $70 including the vacuum pump is a steal.