Intro to Our Vacuum Press Kits
A quick introduction to vacuum pressing and our DIY vacuum press kits

There are only a handful of tools available to the average woodworker that can make an immediate and substantial difference in the quality of a finished project. A good miter saw, a classic router bit, or a fine hand plane; each of these tools can help turn a pile of lumber into a greater display of your craftsmanship. A vacuum press fits well in this category of tools.

A vacuum press gives you the opportunity to use some of the finest woods available. Many of these species are so rare and valuable that they are unaffordable in solid lumber. In other cases, the wood may be too unstable to use in lumber form. By veneering those types of logs and burls, wood movement is controlled by the adhesive and a substrate like plywood or particle board.

Ultimately, the question is how to get the wood veneer to cure flat on the project panel. A vacuum press does the trick, and now it does it easily and affordably.

It took many years of serious trial and error, and even more time writing and updating our kit instructions to get where we are today. We now offer several free plans to build a vacuum veneer press. Make no mistake - each of these is a heavy duty, durable, and reliable piece of equipment. If you follow the instructions carefully, the press will last for as long as you enjoy the art of veneering.

Most veneering books and online articles seem just too complicated and are geared toward proprietary materials and equipment. The construction method found in our vacuum press instructions uses standardized parts that can be found on the Internet and at your local hardware store.

We wrote these articles to show that you don't need a mega-buck setup to build a durable and reliable vacuum press. We hope you'll agree. As always, you are welcome to email us suggestions for improvement.

The Basic Idea
Imagine a giant zip-lock bag with a piece of plywood and an exotic wood veneer inside. To adhere the veneer to the plywood you need two things... glue and clamping pressure. The glue is placed on the plywood and the veneer is set on top. The panel is then placed inside the bag and the air from within the bag is removed with a vacuum system.

Vacuum can be achieved either through the use of an electric vacuum pump or with a pneumatic device called a venturi. Vacuum pumps and venturi units are rated by air flow (CFM or cubic feet per minute) and by the maximum achievable vacuum level which is usually referenced as a measurement of "inches of Mercury" or "inches of Hg".

A vacuum press is a very powerful tool that is capable of producing over 1,700 pounds per square foot of pressure at full capacity. The actual formula is 1" of Hg equals 70.56 lbs per square foot.

Even more impressive is that the vacuum creates this much pressure on every square foot within the vacuum bag. A simple 2' x 4' panel in a vacuum bag has a total of 11,200 lbs of "pressure" spread across the whole project. It's easy to see why vacuum pressing is considered the ideal method to bond wood veneers to most substrates.

Atmospheric pressure is what makes a vacuum veneer press capable of such incredible strength. When vacuum is applied, atmospheric pressure puts down a tremendous amount of force. Not only does this press the veneer onto the substrate, it also compresses the fibers of the materials being glued. As the fibers are compressed, the air inside the materials is displaced with glue and within an hour, a bond is made.