Collapsible veneer press

[marcus]

I'm starting to think about making a traditional screw veneer press of a reasonable size which would be inexpensive and could be taken apart easily for storage. I'm wondering would torsion boxes would work for the platens - would they be stiff enough? Never made a torsion box so no experience to go by....

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Marcus
I'm tempted to ask the q, "WHY?"
If you want an occasional VP then a vac bag is your best bet. If you are doing only flat stuff, you can do a helluva lot with one of those clothes storage bags and a domestic vacuum cleaner. OK it won't make compound moulds but box lids and the like would be no problem. Cheap as chips into the bargain.
S

 

[marcus]

Because I do a certain amount of hot hide glue veneering/inlay/marquetry with sawn veneer that is too thick to hammer so need to use heated plates. Doesn't work in bag press - by the time the panel is manouvered in and the bag sealed and the air pumped out the plates have cooled down....

 

[Steve Maskery]

OK, fair enough.
So, you are going to mount heated plates onto a wooden frame? How will you heat the plates?
I think there would be no difficulty in making torsion boxes, they are incredibly strong and do not easily distort. I've used them for shelves and a boardroom table. Not sure how you will adapt them for this purpose though. Have you got a sketch?
S

 

[marcus]

No, you use loose zinc or aluminium plates, heat in oven, and place on top of the veneer


Will post sketch later....

 

[Steve Maskery]

What sort of size are you proposing, Marcus?
S

 

[o0dunk0o]

There is a design for a veneer press made with torsion boxes in The Workbench Book by Scott Landis

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BNGE ... ch&f=false

 

[Steve Maskery]

Is there indeed! I'll have a look, I have that somewhere.
S

 

[o0dunk0o]

Is there indeed! I'll have a look, I have that somewhere.
S

page 88, its built as a workbench but it would be easy to build it to whatever size needed

 

[marcus]

Thanks for your responses,

That combined bench/press is genius. If I didn't already have a bench....

This is what I had in mind:

Probably about 3' x 6' The idea is that the square sections bolt into the bottom platen (or maybe the platen could just sit loose on top), then it all comes apart when not in use...

 

[o0dunk0o]

As long as your frames are built suitably strong I'd imagine it'd work quite well

 

[Steve Maskery]

That seems very big to me. On a smaller scale I can see it being viable. I'll be very interested to hear how you get on, though.
S

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Hi Marcus,

If you don't mind me making a suggestion or two, I think the basic idea is sound. However, it might be as well to simplify it as much as possible; have, say, two frames with one screw each, and use something like 6" x 2" beams longitudinally, and 3" x 3" beams transversely to spread the load. The bottom platten would need some support under it similar to the beams applying loads to the top platten, or it would just sag between clamp frames. Using two screws per frame, and multiple frames, seems just a complicated way of doing something a dozen or so F-clamps could do.

The square frames could be 4" x 4" mortice and tennoned at the corners, with a long proprietry vice screw to apply the load. Would be fun to build, but obtaining all the packing and making sure it was all square and true would be a bit slow. Storing it all might take some space, too. Worth it if it's something you'd use a lot, but for just a few, maybe two plattens, one on the floor, job between, platten on top and pile lots of bricks and rocks on it might be easier and cheaper.

 

[dickm]

Never tried press veneering on a large scale, but the idea looks pretty good. If you go down the torsion box route, would it make sense to "crown" top and bottom surfaces adjacent to the veneers, to even out the pressure across the surface?

 

[AndyT]

If you did build something with chunky timber frames, would an alternative to expensive bench screws be to use car jacks from a scrapyard? I imagine either the screw or the bottle type would work ok. Just a thought though,

 

[marcus]

Thanks for these responses, all very helpful.

I think, Steve, you're right, 6x3 is perhaps too big. I was thinking of future proofing it so that it could cope with anything I would ever be likely to do, but in practice 4 x 2'6" would be more manageable, and probably as big is I will realistically need (famous last words....).

I'm wondering if it might be worth asking someone to quote for fabricating the square frames from steel. Would certainly make it more compact for storing.

Many things to think about re. number and position of screw clamps etc.

Andy, car jacks is a good thought (almost too powerful maybe!), but I think they would be too slow, since I need to get it cramped up before the hot plates cool down....

Cheers,

Marcus.