Here are some pics of my plywood press. I got it finished today and gave it a quick blast with 60 psi to see if it exploded or not. It held no problem with deflection of less than 1mm across the width of the ply and I didnt even put the end rod in due to lazyness on the first 30+ degree celcius day of our Aussie summer hit hard.
Material specs are
Standard grade 17mm plywood, nothing special here, 3 layers a side
M12 threaded rod and nuts, 13 per side and 1 on each end so 28 in total.
Internal dimentions are 380mm x 2100mm
Electrical conduit is used simply as a spacer for the top
To load it I remove the end rod and slide in the molds with the lay up inside. You can also change the total height up or down to easily get a desired gap between the top and bottom mold.
When not in use it will be disassembled and packed away.
I just need to finish the cat track and heat mats now and I am ready to press my first board.
Does the top and bottom mold slide in from the end? Also you might want to enlarge the size of the washers on top of the studs, maybe even some 1/4x2 flat strap end to end going through the studs? There's always more than one way to skin a cat. Looks Good!!!
Will you be putting wheels on it for maneuverability? 60psi is a lot of pressure, only 1mm deflection is pretty impressive. I take it you be loading from the end? Nice job.
troublemaker wrote:Does the top and bottom mold slide in from the end? Also you might want to enlarge the size of the washers on top of the studs, maybe even some 1/4x2 flat strap end to end going through the studs? There's always more than one way to skin a cat. Looks Good!!!
Yeah I will do the full lay up with the moulds outside the press, lay the cat track and hoses in, put the top mold on and slide it into the press.
I thought about the washers and decided to try it and see, so far there seems to be no need to upgrade. If I got more deflection I was going to run some right angle steel laterally between the studs.
skidesmond wrote:Will you be putting wheels on it for maneuverability? 60psi is a lot of pressure, only 1mm deflection is pretty impressive. I take it you be loading from the end? Nice job.
yeah wheels will be installed soon.
Because the gap was bigger due to no cat track and lay up the hose has expanded more than it will when it is actually in use, I dont think I will need 60 on a proper lay up but I wanted to make sure it didnt explode lol.
That's sweet!! I built a twin turbo gT3/T4 2200cc fast fuel injection 1953 VW bug for my wife. The other day at PIR it ran a 10.89 @ 128mph, then she drove it home 89 miles getting 28mpg!
My first board came out with a slightly convex base so I added some 25mmx25mm square tube across the width of the bottom sheets and that fixed the problem.
Hmm... This press looks right up my alley! I was wondering if it's a hassle to pull the whole mold out and put it back in every time? You could make it side loading by cutting the rod in half on one side and using some threaded rod couplings. Make some sort of system to have the top or bottom ones move out of the way then just thread them back on. Not sure how they would don under 60psi though... This could probably get tedious too but might save some time overall