Thanks to all who have posted extremely valuable and detailed info on this forum. I spent many hours studying this website to come up with my press. I acquired the steel from a craigslist ad for 1/2 price. The seller even cut the steel to my specifications.
I attempted to drill the holes with my hand drill. I made it about a 3rd the way through and decided to rent a mag drill. FYI-the mag drill cost me $50 for 4 hours but saved me at least that much in drill bits. I also save a lot of time and effort with the mag drill.
I used grade 8-1/2" bolts to secure the tube steel together. I bought the bolts from Lowe's.
Here is the complete frame:
Bladder: for the bladder I bought 25' of 5" hose from rawhidefirehose.com. I followed happy monkeys method of installing the bladder connections. At 50 psi I have minor leaks. Unfortunately I need to pull apart the whole assembly and try to add additional teflon tape and hope I can get a leak free connection. I am really trying to avoid using any silicone.
This week I should be able to complete my first mdf forms and aluminum cat track. I am still debating on whether I should spend $1,000 for heating blankets. I will post pictures as I finish more.
this is awesome. Did you do a deflection analysis on that gauge tube and what pressure will you press at?
Maybe you can get the blankets to $650 before controller?
Thanks! My calculations came out to a .267" deflection at 75 psi(worst case). I think the press should be ok. If not I have designed the stand it sets on to accept a couple of angle irons with all-thread if deflection becomes a problem. That way I could easily slide the angle brackets to the ends and have access to the press.
What epoxy are you going to use - I'm guessing you need high temp?
Honestly, I havent even started looking into types of epoxy or the process. I have my head burried in designing the press and my new boards. I dont have heat blankets so I assume I will have to use a room temp type of epoxy. I ordered an epoxy kit from snowboardbuilders.com
The search term 'cheap heat' should through up a few interesting results. I'm using carbon underfloor heating elements. Three hundred watts of power will produce 60 degrees C, if properly insulated - it takes bit of time to do this and you may want to consider how cold your workshop is. I believe you need to think in terms of 2-3 watts per squared inch, whatever solution you choose.
If your not going into commercial production and you can find the right epoxy, these heater are a good cheap heat option. Throwing an electric blanket over your press has also been done - epoxy loves heat right. I took the view that I could upgrade later and in the meantime, use the cash to buy good raw materials for the initial build.
Hope this helps, as its a tricky process this ski building lark.
Last edited by Richuk on Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Here are some pictures of my press progress.
not a perfect mold but not bad for my first.
This seemed to work in stopping a small leak. I added plumbers putty under the gaskets.
As designed the press started to deflect at 40psi. here is a pic of the beams twisting:
no load picture for comparision:
I added 8 pieces of angle iron that appear to limit the deflection. The angles are still deflecting a bit:
I am now ready for my first board. Hopefully my materials arrive soon. I ordered them 2 weeks ago from snowboardmaterials.com. Not sure what the delay is......
After routing all of the ribs I am seriously considering a cnc router. Anyone ever used a black toe 4'x8' cnc machine http://buildyourcnc.com/blackFoot48v40.aspx They are fairly inexpensive but I dont want a piece of s#$@.
If it were me...
Clamp the square tubing so they are lined up in the correct position (unloaded) and stitch weld them together.
Do the same thing for the tubing that holds the top and bottom frames together.
If still needed, I would use some more tubing as additional bracing in the manner you have done with the angle iron. I don't recall who it is but they have a nice set up where the front folds sown for loading, then pins into place. This would be alot easier than screwing the nuts on too. Maybe someone on here can assist with doing calcs for you.
That angle iron looks kinda scary to me...
ra
yeah welding is a great option, At first I thought you had a good design similar to iggys first and then I looked back at Iggies and yours is missing allot of steel.
Thanks for the input. Iggies design has a slightly thicker tube. Great idea on welding the seams. I had thought about that but wanted to try angles first. I will give it a try and post some pics.
As far as cnc. Ive been researching them quite extensively over the last 6 months. The Blacktoe kit is $3000 plus you still need to buy electronics. Which in my case I have figured about $800 for (4) steppers, Gecko g540 controller, power supplier ect. Plus maybe another $100 for odds and ends.
That would be $4000 for a complete mdf cnc machine. You could get a all aluminum extrusion cnc for less than that. Before you fork over that kind of cash for an all mdf machine kit check out these:
As far as cnc. Ive been researching them quite extensively over the last 6 months. The Blacktoe kit is $3000 plus you still need to buy electronics. Which in my case I have figured about $800 for (4) steppers, Gecko g540 controller, power supplier ect. Plus maybe another $100 for odds and ends.
That would be $4000 for a complete mdf cnc machine. You could get a all aluminum extrusion cnc for less than that. Before you fork over that kind of cash for an all mdf machine kit check out these:
Also if you can source the alum/steel frugally and locally you can build it for a cheaper price.
Great links! It is very frustrating as I am sure you know when picking a CNC. It is a lot of money and very confusing. I would love to spend the time and build one from scratch but I don't think I have the time to fully understand the entire process.
I like the Joe's CNC kit. Are you sure it is fairly easy to extend the table to 8'? I am thinking about paying the $100 for the plans and access to the forum. Does the forum contain an explanation on how to extend the table?
