So we finally got our press together. I was gonna build it from scratch but my friends father asked to see the prints, and then decided to send it to a fab shop and pay for it to get done. All we had to do was pick it up in VT, bring it back to boston, paint and assemble it.
I already have all the other items done, heat blanket, cat track etc. So tonight I should be setting all that stuff up. Ive gota wait for epoxy and fiberglass which is in the mail but we'll be pressing our first board soon. Ill post some picks when we lay up.
$1800. Good thing it was a gift! Its not too bad considering the steal would be atleast a 1000, plus quality welds, and they drilled all the holes, assembled it to make sure it fit, and then dissasembled it for pickup. They also added the legs adn casters which werent in the prints.
i press Kublai at around 75 psi. above that i start to notice slight deflection of the I-beams. if i go higher, i would consider adding an additional center constraint.
oh, here's a quick layup video which shows a quick preview of the cassette.
thats an awesome video Kam, thanks. Your press looks like i tworks perfectly. I put the cat track, fire hose, and top mold in last night, and used an EPDM bungee suspension. It worked ok but there was a lot of slack in the cat track in between the bungees. I think I just need to pull it tighter on its line. Once I get it together I'll post some pics.
We've vacuum molded three boards already, so we've got some experience with layup. Do you have anything inside your press to located the board, or do you just eyeball it? Was that plastic you used as the top of your cassette? Is there Aluminum under the cat track?
Nice Press! Great video on layup. It is great to be able to see how other guys get the job done. We all approach things a little bit different and it ihas been very helpfull to my project to be able to pickup the suttle details from all of the contributors to this forum. So, back to the subject of plastic over the layup. I have been using 1/8th in. HDPE, but have been getting very slight ripples in the topsheet when pressing at 75psi. Cattrack is 3/4 sq. steel with radiused corners. Will be pressing today with an additional 3/16th piece of masonite on top. Test press looked good. Will post results. Any others wth same problem? I can imagine Beansnow, that you are chompping to get your first press going. PM me if you need plastic sheets cut to size. I have a supplier 1 mile from my shop, and could grab what you need along with the alu we talked about. It is raining here so I am off to the cellar to make skis. We are all very fortunate to have such a great diversion to outside play, or mowing the lawn.
i def want to get some aluminum from you, i left you a pm with my email, we gotta work it out cuase thats all i need to get the press going. and yes, i am chooooomping at the bit to get it done.
finally got the press to work last night. The cat track comes down pretty uniform. It does bridge the tip/tail radius slightly but theres only a few millimeters of space, so once i put the heating blanket in and the aluminum cassette it should work good.
I have a video from my cell phone i wnated to post, does anyone know how to conver a .3g2 to a .mov or something.
pressed our first board this weekend, havent taken any pics yet but it came out sick, i'll take some photos when it gets back from the shop getting the base finished and the edges cleaned up.
haha, yea that thought crossed our minds, so every time we take them on and off we wear safety glasses. We're gonna try and devise a diff suspension system soon, probably like yours with the springs.
