European sources for bleeder board

[henrik_o]

I've contacted Arauco and recieved word that they do not sell Trupan ultralight in Europe except for a very small trickle to Spain.

What are other European 'botters using, or non-European 'botters who don't use Trupan UL?

We've used a LDF board, but it's way too porous: after a few throughcuts it's messed up and won't keep level with the plenum.

Ideas/experience?

[evan]

If I recall you have a regenblower so you could use standard MDF. The problom people have with MDF is that the cheaper stuff varies in porosity so much that they get no suction in places. But I know a couple of shops with big iron machines that use MDF or Medite ( no formaldehydes) and have no problems.
I only have a couple of Feins for my Vac set up and have used it in the passed with fair results, but now I use the Trupan because it's available, consistant, and easier for the Feins to pull through.
Off subject but just wanted to say you are a great addition to the SB community. I've enjoyed reading your contributions.

[fleinbach]

Henrik,

I tried localy but could not find a suppier of Trupan either. I also purchased some light weight MDF form 4 differant suppliers and none seemed to work well until I found a 5th suppier withen 50 miles who had a light weight they claimed was made by Tafisa. Anyway it works great for me as a bleeder board. Here is a link to there location in Switzerland. They are also in the UK. I don't know if they distribute to Sweden or not.

Tafisa (http://www.sonaeindustria.com/ing/suica.htm)

[henrik_o]

Evan,

Thank you for the kind words, it warms the heart. I think there's a completely awesome crew of operators here with all you guys, something unprecedented in terms of a community around a certain brand machine, and I hope to grow into it as time goes by.

Yes, we have a regen, it is however quite weak in terms of HP, it's at 6 or 7 iirc. Still, it gives us surprisingly good hold down even with a 'challenged' bleeder, but the idea is to relegate old Elmo (it's a siemens ELMO-series pump) back to vacuum clamping and maybe bagging, and install a Dresser roots blower, or a similar blower of another brand. For now, Elmo will have to do.

I have local supply of very high quality mdf, i.e little variation in density laterally, I guess it couldn't hurt to try.

Is the idea to take a 19mm panel and use the 'bot to plane off ~3mm on each face, leaving the lesser-density core?

Frank,

Thank you! I have sent an email to their sales organisation in the Netherlands. Just for my edification, you are using a 'light' MDF, not a LDF?

To all,

From reading the forum over time, it's clear Trupan is considered the King of Bleeders. Apart from brand, why is that? Is it possible to specify a certain feature (or several) of it that makes it so supreme --which would help in finding an alternative)?

[evan]

Henrik,
You might even try less, 1mm - 1.5mm. Just enough to break the skin and plane flat (parallel to XY plane).
Trupan is made from "sustainably" harvested virgin debarked pine, that is 30% lighter than standard MDF. Formaldehyde is not used in the manufacturing process. It almost has a fresh scent when machining it.

[henrik_o]

Thanks, Evan. Hm. I will try Karlit, then. It's exclusively made of debarked northern european pine which is washed before grinding, there are no additives other than the glue, so in terms of the raw material it should be on par with Trupan (they market it as "the lightest coloured mdf on the market"). They do use formaldehyde, though.

I'm worried that their regular product is a bit too dense for optimal vacuum flow, but I'll try it -- I'll start with planing off 1.5mm but will probably need to take off twice that on each end, it's a pretty dense board.

[benchmark]

Hi Henrik

We use 3 or 4mm Medite MDF without skimming the face, we just seal the edges... It works really well. We found that when you re-skim thicker spoilboards they start to curl up.

We are in the UK with very good supplies of Medite, Medite's parent company Weyerhaeuser has a plant in France called Mediland MDF ( dont get too exited its not the same as Legoland ). I am sure that with Swedens history of furniture making you would have very good supplies of MDF.

Paul


Paul

[benchmark]

Hi Henrik

We use 3 or 4mm Medite MDF without skimming the face, we just seal the edges... It works really well. We found that when you re-skim thicker spoilboards they start to curl up.

We are in the UK with very good supplies of Medite, Medite's parent company Weyerhaeuser has a plant in France called Mediland MDF ( dont get too exited its not the same as Legoland ). I am sure that with Swedens history of furniture making you would have very good supplies of MDF.

Paul

[fleinbach]

When I first got the Tafisa I described above I placed it on my plenum to test its porosity and was totally amazed at how well it worked without removing any surface. It worked so well I glued it down and only surfaced the top layer to level it.

[henrik_o]

Thanks to all for the input. I will try Karlit, since I have it on hand, and if that doesn't work pursue other avenues.

Paul and Frank, what vacuum blowers do you use?

[fleinbach]

Henrik,

I started with a Fein Turbo Vac IV and found it to work very well pulling 6 inches of mercury. But I now use the 7.5HP blower from Shopbot. It pulls 14 inches and I am very pleased with it. I usually cut through my parts and even long narrow pieces stay put. These used to be the most difficult to hold down. Before the vacuum I screwed the sheets of MDF down and made bridges to hold the pieces. This worked for most parts but several times if I were cutting long narrow parts they would be pulled up with enough force to break the tabs. These where usually between 2 to 3 inches wide and several feet long.

If I had not been able to afford the 7.5 HP Blower I’m sure I could have been satisfied with the Fein system. The only difference is with the Fein I would still make bridges or leave a thin skin on smaller parts. That does not worry me anymore with the 7.5 setup since I have now cut some parts all the way through that had small 2 inch diameter circles and they stayed put.