A small ring‐shaped vacuum chamber has been constructed and connected to the piezotube used for scanning samples in the atomic force microscope (AFM). Samples made up of any material, up to 50 mm in diameter, can be firmly attached onto the piezotube without causing damage to the sample. A 50‐lbeer container forms a buffer between vacuum pump and chamber. With this supply of vacuum, the AFM can be operated for a 4–8 h period without turning on the vacuum pump again. Samples can be changed within 30 s. The scan frequency when using microscope slides is limited to 40 Hz due to resonance effects of the microscope slides.