Anyone, Having taken the plunge to replace soundboards, I need a rib press. The traditional go-bar press won't do because of space limitations. Having searched the archives and back issues of the Journal I'm thinking of building a variation of the pneumatic presses as described by Claire Davies in the 10/87 Journal and David Hughes in 9/93. In the archives I saw references to "individual rib clamps" being used by several people on this list and would be interested in knowing more specifics. Of course at this point I have more questions than I can give thought to but any ideas from those that use any space saving but practical and effective methods would be appreciated. One question I have concerns clamping pressure. The Davies press gives 100PSI which seems excessive compared to the Hughes variant at 35PSI which seems more reasonable to me. Another question concerns bottom caul configuration. If one is using straight ribs and compression crowning (I am), does pressing into a curved surface have any material effect on the crown or is Jack Krefting correct when he stated in one of his series of articles that it does not. Also, I plan on using the individually inflatable system with "Schrader valves" as in the Hughes article but must confess these are unfamiliar to me and I need to know where to obtain them and also what sort of supplier I can try to locally get 1 1/4" mill hose. I guess you can see that this whole project is in the very elementary stage so any direction you experienced soundboard installers that use similar systems can point me in can help me immensely. Thanks much, Garold Beyer
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