Thin Laminate Molding Issue

[peter christianson]

I'm making a thin (3-4mm), curved, veneer lamination (4-5 pieces of veneer). The bottom is flat but the top has 3 small curves that look like this "000" but are joined together. The two outer curve tops are a bit larger than the middle curve top. The curves are not very tight but I will have 2 shallow valleys on either side of the middle curve top.
My question is... will a vacuum bag setup press the laminates into the valley areas? Currently I use a 2-part, male-female wooden mold with clamps. It is difficult to get an even distribution of pressure doing it this way.
If using a vac bag, could one put some high density foam strips in the bag along the length of the valleys to assist with adding pressure to the valleys?


Thanks,

[Jamie Buxton]

It is difficult to answer your questions without knowing the dimensions involved. However, in general, if you can use your fingers to push the laminates to the bottom of the valley, the vacuum press will really mash them in there.

Adding foam strips won't help much. The vacuum bag gives you 14 pounds per square inch everywhere. Putting foam strips on top of the laminates means the 14 psi is applied to the top of the foam, which applies it to the bottom of the foam -- that is, the laminates. They still get 14 psi whether or not you put the foam strips on top.