ok so all of you are gonna be like, out this in quick questions but this isn't a quick question.... I press my decks with lots of force in a vice which I extend the handle of in order to press even harder. When I put a deck in the mold, it never completely takes the shape of the mold and leaves small gaps in between the dips and the mold, even when pressed really tightly. Yes, I am using a bondo mold, but it's fairly hard and even... why is this always!!! HAPPENING!!

Err is your mold perfectly shaped??? If the mold is slightly warped in any way you're decks probably will come out misshaped.

I'm not experienced with deck making, but I'm pretty sure pressing doesn't depend fully on pressure. Try different glues perhaps? Different glues and woods have different properties, so pressing might come down to that too.

How long do you have them in the mold?

Praibis wrote:

How long do you have them in the mold?

This could be your problem, ^^^ or it could be the wood glue.

Are you making them with plies in the same direction?
I'm asking because back when i started, i use cross plies and usually there were some of those small gaps you mentioned, especially in the two botton plies, no matter how hard you pressed them.

Are the gaps there even when pressing the veneers?

roaldafb wrote:

Praibis wrote:

How long do you have them in the mold?

This could be your problem, ^^^ or it could be the wood glue.

yes

ok, i pressed a deck earlier, all was fine everything was well defined, the deck was also pressed with much more pressure, and was much thinner. but maybe the veneer was different and caused it to press better..? 24hr pressing using a good glue, not that soggy wood glue stuff

From my experience different veneer will take shape differently.

are you clamping the mold in the vice really tight straight away?

i find that when i make decks, i get a more consistant shape by clamping the mold loosely at first, an then tightening the vice a little bit every half an hour untill its as tight as possible

this gives the glue more time to soak in an start drying rather than it been all squished out the sides

dont know if this will be usefull advice or not, but thought id share it!

Ryan wrote:

From my experience different veneer will take shape differently.

If the veneer is too hard or too soft this could be your problem. If it's to hard it will resist the mold. If it's to soft it will warp after coming out of the mold, or there could be pockets of wood glue that are forming?