Birch Plywood
Thin birch ply can be used either on its own to build up very solid laminated parts or as part of a sandwich with flexible plywood to produce very stilf but relatively thin panels. Bagpress stocks this material in thicknesses of 0.8mm and 1.5mm which come in squares of 1270mm and 1525mm respectively.

Flexible Veneers
Flexible veneers are fantastic for vacuum press work. This is a real wood veneer that has been bonded to a kraft paper backing and comes in 1220mm x 2440mm sheets. Quite apaprt from the conveniance of not having to join pieces of raw veneer together this material is much easier to handle and the paper backing ensures that there is no glue squeeze through to the face. Bagpress now stocks a range of standard and exotic species of flexible veneer comprising maple, beech, cherry, american white oak, american balck walnut, zebrano, movingui, bubinga, macassar ebony (Alpi), and bombay rosewood (Alpi). If you require other species please call us as we may well be able to source it for you.

Adhesives
The vast majority of the panels that we produce are bonded with a high quality cross linking D3 PVA adhesive. We have found this to be more than adequate for panel work and veneering and the only time we use other adhsives such as UF resins or Resorcinol would be if the part being made is a structural load bearing component such as a beam or support.
We therefore mainly sell the same PVA that we use in our own manufacturing although we can supply a wide range of other adhesives to order and normally carry a small stock of water curing PU which can be used for bonding polystyrene.

Finishing Oil
We stock two finishing oils made by OSMO. These are applied in a similar way to Danish oil with a cloth, but do not go tacky so quickly which makes them easier to apply evenly. Two coats are all that are required, with 24hours between, to produce a fantastic rich and deep finish. Available to give either a satin or matt finish.

Materials
Bagpress not only supplies vacuum presses but also the materials to go with them. We are the only vacuum press manufacturer who does this. Because we use our in house presses for commercial work on a day to day basis we are in a unique position to offer advice on manufacturing processes, adhesives, mould making foam, plywoods, MDF and veneers. If you can't find something that you are looking for please call us as we may already have it in sock or be able to source it for you.

Mould Making Foam
Bagpress has pioneered the use of high density polystyrene foam as a mould making material for vacuum pressing. It can be shaped easily using wood working machinery and hand sanded. It is available in sheets up to 150mm thick and so even kaming large moulds is very quick and easy. If you need a higher degree of accuracy than cutting by hand, consider our STYROMOULD service which offers CNC hot wire cut moulds delivered to your dood ready to use.

Flexible Plywood
Flexible plywood is a material designed to be used in curved forms and is one of the most important materials used in vacuum pressing work. It is constructed from a very thin longitudiinal layer with a thicker layer bonded on either side. The thicker layers have been processed to make them very weak across the grai so you end up with a very flexible sheet. However, as soon as you bond two pieces together the materials becomes rigid again.

It is available in thicknesses of 3mm, 5mm and 8mm and we can supply the crossgrained version by mail order. Long grain is available to order for collection only.

Flexible MDF
Neatform MDF is produced by cutting deep slots into one side of a sheet of standard MDF. This allows the material to flex to a high degree. You would typically bond two layers of this material back to back to produce a rigid panel. We use this material for making kitchen drawer fronts and we always use an intermediate layer between the two parts as this increase the strength of the finished panel enormously. This layer can be either veneer or a high quality craft paper. This material is available in 6mm and 9mm and is very useful where you are working to a fine thickness tolerance as you can get up to a standard 19mm panel using only two pieces rather than the trhee required with flexible plywood.