Ski Builders Forum

I wanted to share a new press design we came up with. The traditional press creates pinch points at the tips and tails that do not allow the bladder to press deep into the tight radius of the tips and tails. We decided to flip the bags to run perpendicular to the board. We just completed this modification but it looks like we are getting great uniform pressure. We also added shut off valves to the last few bags for pressing shorter boards. Just thought I would share this with the group. Thx, Adam @ OZ Snowboards

Interesting design. Do you get much leakage from the bladders? Have you made any skis with this design?

Adam, you just blew my mind. Time consuming....to say the least. Glad it paid off!

Derek

Wow.

Am I the only one thinking there must be low pressure areas between the hoses?
Hose and cat track parallel seems wrong to me?

gozaimaas wrote:Am I the only one thinking there must be low pressure areas between the hoses?

No, same thought here...

It looks like there's a BIG gap between contact points on two of the hoses in your last photo. There are at least four cattrack bars with no hose contact above them (I see some sheet metal). Cool idea, but I think you need to reduce the gap between the ski/board and your top mold so the hoses don't expand as much.

must be taking the piss IMO

We make boards from 100cm to 171cm. To use a bladder in the parallel direction just doesn't work for our application of an adjustable press. We have made thousands of boards and tried numerous methods. The overall problem is the bladder wants to straighten out under high pressure. by doing that it doesn't want to press into the tips/tails and creates pinch points. Our top mold is completely adjustable and that doesn't help with the bladders trying to straighten out. It works great if you have 1 press for 1 size. We don't have the space or money to buy 10 presses so we need to innovate and make a press that works well for all our sizes. The picture I posted is only inflated to 20 psi. We press at 60 psi and it locks in all the track pieces. What you don't see is a metal cord that binds all the track members together. In addition, we have a total of 4 aluminum sheets as our cassettes. If we had issues with the gap between the bags we could easily just add a aluminum plate above the track. We haven't had that problem. In fact the boards we press are coming out flatter and no issues in the tip and tail bend. I understand this design is non traditional and it may take some criticism. The herd mentality never leads to better products!

Had the same problem as you guys. Right after the mold ends the hose wants to straighten out which influences the conformity in the tip radius. The solution we came up with was to slide the hose ends with the pneumatic connectors right up to the mold and clamp the other end tight to the top of the press with a steel bar right after the other end of the mold. That way you get a hose that is adjustable in lenght which eliminates the problems with the hose wanting to straighten.

I wouldn't call it herd mentality. I do most things differently to most but I see a pretty major issue with that set up being the huge gaps between hoses where as far as I can see there is no pressure applied to the cat track. Maybe I'm wrong but that's what I am seeing.

The idea has some merit though. I'm going to poach the idea but combine it with my regular hoses and just put a hose across at each end where the tips kick up for a little pressure boost in that area where its needed

Now that sounds like a rad idea

That's all it needs hey, best of both worlds.

gozaimaas wrote:I wouldn't call it herd mentality. I do most things differently to most but I see a pretty major issue with that set up being the huge gaps between hoses where as far as I can see there is no pressure applied to the cat track. Maybe I'm wrong but that's what I am seeing.

The idea has some merit though. I'm going to poach the idea but combine it with my regular hoses and just put a hose across at each end where the tips kick up for a little pressure boost in that area where its needed

Now thats a good idea, I'll be trying the same to help with those tricky tight corners!!!! thanks Goz for the tweak to this idea and thanks for Adam to challenge the established hose layouts with a new way of doing it, I have a nice piece of wide hose here that I was looking for a purpose for!

I think its a great looking press but have you had any blowouts using wood on the top? Your concept is sound but I worry that if it lets loose you could have some safety issues with splintering of those top boards pressing down. Does that make sense? First look to me is that top side might blow apart under the force. If its holding then you have a cool new way of doing things.