Huge glueing press

[Dominique Meuris]

Currently we are glueing all of our furniture components piece by piece, but this is consuming a lot of time.

That's why we are thinking of glueing sheets of 2800x2070mm.
The only problem is that we would need to have a glueing press capable of glueing this, and if possible 5 sheets at a time.

I would prefere to construct it myself out of metal. But the most important factor is that we would need to be able to get a nearly perfect glue-up.
Because our wide belt sander is 120cm width, and our planer is only 90cm. We would need the panels to be as flat as possible.

what would you suggest?

thank you!

[Peter Quinn]

You have given very little pertinent information. Such as what are you gluing, and how? Edges of solid strips to make panels? Veneers on engineered cores? Sort of hard to understand what you are doing with present information. Your two dimensions are very large in either case, IMO any method that exceeds the width capacity of your sander is not going to work.

[Dominique Meuris]

You have given very little pertinent information. Such as what are you gluing, and how? Edges of solid strips to make panels? Veneers on engineered cores? Sort of hard to understand what you are doing with present information. Your two dimensions are very large in either case, IMO any method that exceeds the width capacity of your sander is not going to work.

I would be gluing single strips of solid oak or pine.

I was thinking of using a glueing fraze. To position the strips before pressing.

Ofcourse after cutting the sheets to the desired Size, i would put All of them trough my thicknesses And wide belt Sander.

But it's not necessairy to have these sizes of panels, i just feel like loosing a lot of time in production. Currently we are glueing everything piece by piece.
And since we use around 30m3 rough timber a month, it's a lot of work.

[Max Neu]

Maybe instead of pressing everything spread out which will require a huge and expensive press,maybe consider stacking them.I use 5'x10' lift top vacume press.You could stack your parts and put plastic between them so they don't stick together.

[J.R. Rutter]

You might look into RF gluers. A panel can be ready to pull from the press in 30-40 seconds. There are large options available. RFS and L&L are two current manufacturers. I have a smaller Rosenquist, but I'm not sure if they are still in business.

[Mel Fulks]

We could still use more info, but I'll suggest something that might help someone. When gluing 4x8 laminate to sheet goods you can use UF glue ,just stack the sheets and and put a little weight on top. Mix the glue thin enough to DRIP off a stick, not stream. Let the glue sit 10 or 15 minutes before useing.Roll glue onto both surfaces ,it's so thin that it's easy to control without making a mess. If you use a flat table this works well,I don't know of any other glue that draws down as it sets. You can test this by gluing a sample about two feet square. Put spring clamps around the perimeter and something as small as a quart of paint in the middle for a little weight and the whole area will be evenly drawn down. Dominique....
let us know if this has any relevance.

[Peter Quinn]

We have a 5x10' pneumatic clamping table, very similar to a Unique table (http://www.uniquemachine.com/280.html) , bought from auction, set up with roughly 12 clamps across the length, also has clamps to apply down pressure on a gantry that rolls across the length. This could be fitted with a straight bar so you can force alignment as you clamp your way down a panel. Add to this an automated glue roller and an RF glue dryer and you have a very effective panel production line. We don't do a a volume of panel production that requires RF gluing. Once the panels get as large as you described originally they become combursome to move, might require a vacuum panel lift on a gantry to avoid worker injury, my thinking is better off gluing closer to final dimension and doing it fast than large and slow.

[John A langley]

This works for me I can glue a 36 x 144 panel