I’m about to pull the trigger on a vacuum press setup for the bent laminations in the arms of a bow-arm Morris chair and need some advice—bigger/faster pump with digital controls + vinyl bag or smaller/slower pump with analog controls and a polyurethane bag? The cost difference between the two options, assuming the same bag size, is small enough to be pretty much negligible. I’m leaning toward the better pump with a vinyl bag since I don’t do veneer work/bent laminations daily and can always upgrade to polyurethane down the road if I wear out the vinyl bag but if more experienced folks have input, I’m all ears.
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I currently have a panel in my press set up and I am using the polyurethane bag and a pump with no controls. You plug it in to turn it on and unplug it to turn it off. It has an analog pressure gauge and a valve to control pressure. It pulls a 5'x10' bag to 21 psi in less than a minute. I don't think you need a faster pump. I press a fair amount of veneer and I have a pin hole leak in my bag after 5 years, so I am glad I went with the upgraded bag.
I hope this helps.
I made the Morris chair from plans in FWW and used the clamping method in the plans, no problem BUT I had to buy more clamps, now I have almost enough!!! I did already have a vacuum setup for veneering but I don't think the bag would have been big enough.
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