So I'm 4 boards in and loving this new addiction. I think its time to build a real press and ditch my vac bag mold. I've been drooling over some of the ibeam presses but I came across a very good deal on 3"x6" x .25 web steel box tubing. So good, i thought i'd sketch something up. Am I on ...

My first core looked like that. I added double sticky tape to the bottom of the core to hold it super flat (peel off caaaarefully) and realized I was putting my weight on the router when arms were extended. This is especially easy to do when working on the floor. Sammer-- you always offer good takes...

There are a few different threads on this... when you think about it, you really just want the teeth to have a place to live in your core. So the depth of the rabbet is the tooth height, and the amount you want to cut in should align with the horizontal plane of the teeth... I'd meaure your teeth di...

And for attempt #4 we went a little bonkers and ended up in a very happy place. We stuck with all the good stuff we've learned so far... and then added a few things. We prebent the base, went with square tip spacer interface, and tossed on a veneer top sheet just for fun. We also placed some extra t...

Hi everybody! The probleme of making an adjustable height press is the cost (hydraulic cylinders). The best and cheapest alternative (my opinion) is to make a sort of drawer like that... http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=ca6e21ac53c2f2033b1feb19c717e791 You only move the bottom mol...

Probs- Not exactly the same...but there is a common them of non-rigidity. We got our design from boardcrafter. It's handy and i have no regrets, but i suspect the 1/8 polycarb sheet does flex just a touch. It is at least clamped down on the edges and the bag doesn't encapsulate the mold so the loadi...

OK! so with some help from you guys on some other threads, we're going to go after the next big defect which is the base flatness on the ends. So we'll be shimming the tip spacer on the tip and tail outside of the base and giving the base a little prebend. While we are at it, we ordered up some vene...

OK- Well had a fun week. Found a friendly local shop (literally 2 minutes from my work) and took my board in for its first base grind. On the upside, i found a shop that ground it for free! He said he was learning a lot from me, so it evens out. I'm stoked. On the downside, he found my board not to ...

I'm out of my element here-- Silicone doesn't stick to much. This may be of some use to you: http://www.compositescentral.com/archive/index.php/t-4494.html "I saw the video of them doing a hood bag.they used silicone tape around the edges.then some reinforcing fabric.then when you use the bag.y...

Smiley- what are you using to seal your vacuum environment?

Hey Hegan- I vac press, I'm new to this, and all the websites with info are fresh in my mind. PM me if you have any other basic questions. Someone mentioned both these sites, but given the rest of the posts on here, I'm not sure you got a good chance to check them out. go here for vac pressing http:...

I will update my above post. After bumps in the bases of two boards, we ditched the insert method and went with guide blocks double sticky taped to our vac mold. Flat base no bumps.

PTTR wrote:This is how I do it now. I used to do the "glue up a stack and resaw" but think this is a lot simpler.

http://youtu.be/0DWnojBzc8E

Holy smokes what a dialed method. The time lapse turbo speed makes it seem even faster.

Great last few posts. And yes...why must we clamp from the center out?

Goz- I did a pretty heavy search on this last week. I switched to the guide block method recently after doing some reading and wrestling with issues with my base from using the guide insert method. Here are the threads (now they can be linked in one place!) http://skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.ph...