Hi All

Please has anyone any info on how to make a vacuum press or no of where I can purchase one from ?

Tonya,

Your question implies that you do not have experience with vacuum presses.  A good place for you to start would be Darryl Keil at Vacupress.  He knows the area VERY well and his company is easy to work with.  He also has two quite good videos on using a vacuum press, but they are both slanted to veneering:

http://www.vacupress.com/companyprofile.htm

Another site that might be helpful if you're more inclined towards DIY would be

http://www.joewoodworker.com/veneering/decidingtobuild.htm

I don't believe that I've ever bought from him, but I've seen favorable comments on other forums.

Keep in mind that the maximum pressure you'll be able to press with is bit lower than the local atmospheric pressure -- a vacuum press will not compete with a mechanical press.  Also, you'll need glues with fairly long open times because it will take time to get assemblies into the press.  You can shorten that time by using a flip top press rather than a bag press, but that will restrict your size.  If you're looking at long narrow shapes, search on sites that support model airplanes -- they'll have rolls of lay flat tubing you can cut to length.  (I don't know if the two sources above carry that.)

But, where it's a reasonable choice, it's easy to use and not very expensive. 

Very respectfully,
Larry

If the purose is to make SIPs or foam core panels, I made such things in the 1960s by creating a large very flat place (Nature really abhors a flat place) and laid down two sheets of luan plywood, coated them with (3M or other) solvent based contact cement, and one sheet of foam board , coated bothe sides with the water based (latex) contact cement. After surfaces were covered and thoroughly dry, with a friends help, and a jig made of 2x4s to keep two edges square and straight, we would lower the foam onto the first luan sheet and then the second luan sheet onto the foam. First with a rubber tire mallet, and then with two of us dancinging on the sandwich, carefully covering all areas, forced full contact. We used 2" extruded (the blue stuff) polysytene foam in 4x8 foot sheets. The luan was very thin (5/32") and cheap (then) paneling. The sandwiches were immediately usable, but gained strength over several days. They were more than strong enough to be used for the walls of a slide in pickup camper, which is what we made them for.

We made all the walls and roof, joining edges almost as they do today with sips. A piece of 3/8" steel banding strap bolted to the bars on a Weller gun type soldering iron easily removed the foam from 1 1/2" at the edges, allowing inserted 2 by lumber to be joined with other panels using tee-nuts and 1/4 x 20 flat head machine screws.

After nearly 50 years, I still have a desk made from two short filing cabinets and one of the experiments, and the remade support for the double bed in my small MH is another.

I only mention this here because I have seen (elsewhere) a long discussion about builder made sips and finicky nature of heat activated glue and the need for great pressure and very strong presses, etc, that were very discouraging to amateurs.

Of course, one might have some difficulty is getting such a construct past a building inspector, which is just as well. But, for partitions and non-load bearing walls, well...

Stan

Btw, I'm an owner builder anticipating finishing my home with a roof of 12" sips (just received the permit).