(Green) Better Vacuum Cups VS Blick

[Baoser]

Hello All,
New to the cnc world. Just got a new Park Industry Fab Center. They come with Blick vacuum cups. Just got finish checking out the green Better Vacuum Cups online and they seem pretty good. I know I need to keep the same heights on the cups to keep good hold on the stone. What is everyone's opinion on these two cups. Should I go green. Can I mix the two cups on the table. Thanks in advance for all your advice guys/girls.

[Todd Luster]

Hi Baoser,
This discussion has been done several times in the Members Area if you will take a look.

[Alex_Bores]

Baoser,
There are several reasons the Green pods are better. I will let you know, all SFA members receive a discount when they buy through Helix!

Some of my customer mix the pods as sadly you have an investment now with blick. Until the seals need replaced, then you can get rid of them as needed.

[John Fallon]

Dear Mr. Baoser,

Congratulations on your new machine! I would prefer it was Breton Red, but wish you the best with it.

The reason Park Industries and Breton, along with many other manufacturers provide Blick brand cups is the years of performance that we have experienced with the company. John Blick and his Team have proven time and again that their attention to detail and expertise are unsurpassed.

Custom parts, service and durability are demanded by machine manufacturers to keep precision and specifications within guidelines. I have worked with Blick on projects for around 30 years, solving many, many issues relating to various CNC machines. Enjoy your setup.

In my opinion, you should not mix cups and manufacturers. The green cups may be fine, but mixing the 2 is asking for potential problems.

Enjoy the weekend!

John Fallon
Breton USA
914-441-1306

[jrupert3]

In my opinion, you should not mix cups and manufacturers. The green cups may be fine, but mixing the 2 is asking for problems.
[

What kind of problems? It can’t be worse than using damaged blick pods and hoping it has enough suction to keep tops from moving. The cost from Blick is too high to repair every nic or minor damage every time it happens.

Blick does make a quality product, with a ton of options. I use them, but the minute the green pods come out in 150mm height I’ll buy some.

[jrupert3]

I should reword my statement above, it’s more than just the cost to repair with Blick that gets me wanting to try the green pods. IIt’s the process of shipping them back, waiting for repair and then shipping them back to us. That just doesn’t work for us.

We just bought $3,500 in new Blick pods just so we can ship them the damaged ones we have when we receive the new ones. No way we could go a week or more without them. If I could simply order replacement tops and repair myself it would be a whole different story.

[Andrew H]

I love blick products and their company. They're vertical holding cups are the bomb diggity for ripping our vanity splash to 3/4", however, on our CNC we're only running the green's now. Can't look the other way when the benefits so greatly outweigh the cons. Light, easy to repair, no time wasted shipping, don't damage the table when dropped, the list could go on. The only "con's" I've found is on 1 pod the push to connect fitting pulled out of the plastic. I pulled out out of the rotation and contacted them and they sent larger threaded ones. I enlarged the hole, tapped it and screwed them in....no issues. In the future it'd be nice to see a stainless insert cast into the mold so the fittings have a more secure connection, but for now I just repeatedly tell my operator to stop picking them up by the hoses lol.

[Alex_Bores]

In my opinion, you should not mix cups and manufacturers. The green cups may be fine, but mixing the 2 is asking for problems.
[

I use them, but the minute the green pods come out in 150mm height I’ll buy some.

Jon, I'll touch base with you soon!

[Alex_Bores]

Custom parts, service and durability are demanded by machine manufacturers to keep precision and specifications within guidelines. I have worked with Blick on projects for around 30 years, solving many, many issues relating to various CNC machines. Enjoy your setup.

In my opinion, you should not mix cups and manufacturers. The green cups may be fine, but mixing the 2 is asking for potential problems.

Enjoy the weekend!

John Fallon
Breton USA
914-441-1306
[

First time i have seen a machine guy chime in on pods. Usually, you do not care about either tools or pods. Why the stance on mixing the pods? I do agree with you on one the thing. "Green is fine."

Other than your biased stance, why wouldn't you mix the two?

[mikedean]

I mixed. And it didn't work.

Here is why:

My blicks are older. My machines are all set up tooling wise to machine pieces that are on the blick pods.
When we put some green pods in, they 'sucked down harder' to put it in laymans terms, so our tools cut into the pieces.

They are the same height, but I guess pulled the pieces down more than the blicks, that were set up on the machine.

I would go with one or the other, and use them exclusively on that machine.

[Frosty]

Never tried the greens as our Blicks are still going strong after 6+ years with no issues.
Mixing cups? I've been doing it for 11-12 years now with no issues either.

[SbergeronMG]

The biggest concern I have about green pod is tolerance and that's why most of you probably have issue mixing them.

Blick might not carry the same height tolerance then the green cup. and we all know what 0.1mm can do with tooling.

I will throw that here not to steer shit but I would give a look at Adi pod to. (cheaper/seals are easy to change/ plate don't cost much)
I've had good luck with them for the past 8 years.

[Baoser]

In my opinion, you should not mix cups and manufacturers. The green cups may be fine, but mixing the 2 is asking for problems.
[

What kind of problems? It can’t be worse than using damaged blick pods and hoping it has enough suction to keep tops from moving. The cost from Blick is too high to repair every nic or minor damage every time it happens.

Blick does make a quality product, with a ton of options. I use them, but the minute the green pods come out in 150mm height I’ll buy some.
[

I did mix the sink rail pods with a combo of green and blick. I had a case of laundry top with oversize sink and had no choice with the quantity of rail pods I had available. there was a slight difference in height which caused poor suction. The piece ended up moving and the top became scrap. I have not had to purchase a new blick as of yet. I have crashed my tool into a green pod with no problems to my spindle. The replacement for the green pod was affordable.

[Amroczka]

Blick might not carry the same height tolerance then the green cup. and we all know what 0.1mm can do with tooling.
[

????

[ChrisGraham]

We are all green. Mixed for a while and had a few height issues. So all green was the solution. The pods hold amazingly well. The 50x400 are the best for small vanities. Id like to speak privately with the blick guys. Their pods are far superior as far as tolerances and quality of build. But the have no "grip" they argue vacuum this or that. But their pod surface I would compare to a drag car slick. Vs the BVC pod as a mud tire.If I were buying a new cnc machine and pods I think I would look strongly at the adi pod. Perfect balance between quality of build and grip.

[Baoser]

Thanks so much for all the help guys. I'm going green for now. Seems to be working fine.

[Ken Lago]

I should reword my statement above, it’s more than just the cost to repair with Blick that gets me wanting to try the green pods. IIt’s the process of shipping them back, waiting for repair and then shipping them back to us. That just doesn’t work for us.

We just bought $3,500 in new Blick pods just so we can ship them the damaged ones we have when we receive the new ones. No way we could go a week or more without them. If I could simply order replacement tops and repair myself it would be a whole different story.
[

$3,500 is the price of 1 set of og tools. Buy enough pods so you always have instand replacement. Spending and extra 2 or 3k in pods is not a bad investment Imo.
Blick have been very reliable over the years and make great pods, probably the best, as long I'm happy I'm loyal.

[RandyHunn]

We have used Blick for 12 years. Started mixing in green a couple of years ago. We found that the green hold a lot better, both top and bottom. As far as height difference: Blick - we have to replace the o-ring seal on the bottom from time to time to maintain height. Green, we have to pull off the top and wash out the groove from time to time. No other problems. We mix on every table.

[Ken Lago]

One thing I cannot understand is why you need repair so much? I cannot remember the last time I crashed into a pod, after I got better programming and running the machine crashes stopped.

[alexc]

Hello! We have been using BVC pods for a while now.. and I guess we got used to the height issues which we immediately noticed after we started using them. We thought... well its better to have pods that have a stronger hold than pods with a even height.. honest opinion is that both Blicks and BVCs are far from perfect, they both have serious flaws.. sad part is I don't see either Blick or BVCs addressing current issues... anyways..

In using the BVCs we also realized that is creating another problem for us.. I'd like to know if anybody here has had the same issue and if so.. how they have dealt with it... We use these with an Intermac machine.. after everyday of use we have to open them up and cleaning them thoroughly.. and even then we've been noticing that our water tank for the vacuum pump gets very dirty .. I mean very .. it seems that the dirty water from the process gets sucked into the pods and then into the vacuum lines.. We fear that this issue is going to shorten the life of our vacuum pump... this was not happening with Blicks..

Any ideas will be appreciated.

[gssfabrication]

I should reword my statement above, it’s more than just the cost to repair with Blick that gets me wanting to try the green pods. IIt’s the process of shipping them back, waiting for repair and then shipping them back to us. That just doesn’t work for us.

We just bought $3,500 in new Blick pods just so we can ship them the damaged ones we have when we receive the new ones. No way we could go a week or more without them. If I could simply order replacement tops and repair myself it would be a whole different story.
[

If you call Blick they will absolutely sell you the tops and replacement parts for your pods. They will also sell you the special milling tool you need to get them to exactly the height for your machine. I believe you have to buy the cone for it though. All the replacement tops come thicker than spec so they can be milled off exactly (within 0.001") to your machine height.

The onus would be on your shop to setup the tool and calibrate it on your machine. Another thought would be to find a local precision machine shop and give them the damaged pod with the new top and have them machine it to the height you need. This would save the time of shipping them back and forth at the expense of whatever the machine shop will charge for the work.

I agree with others who have damaged pods. The more experience your programmer gets (in this case myself) there are significantly less crashes or damage being done other than the usual handling.

Good luck.

Rick Graff.

[Alex_Bores]

For those having issues with water there are two things you can do to alleviate that.
One is stand the pods on end and it will drain the water out. And the second is when you lift a piece off the table don’t stand it on end and let all the water drain directly to the pods.

Hope this helps!!

We also have new sizes coming for those that use Green!!
40x300

And and “L” Shape!