Abstract: A vacuum lift is formed with an upper housing cover shaped portion having a central opening in which travels a vertically movable piston rod which has a piston disk at its lower end adapted to be selectively positioned to open or close an aperture in a suction disk having an encircling gasket. An enlarged evacuated volume is provided within the housing cover by expanding a plurality of diaphragm sheets into a bellows. The lowermost diaphragm sheet is connected directly to the suction disk and the uppermost diaphragm sheet is connected to and lifted by the piston rod to expand the bellows. The piston disk is formed with an air valve which is positioned by an automatic switching device operable with vertical movement of a draw bar positioned within the hollow piston.