Excel 5 Veneer Press and veneersupplies.com

[Tayler_mann]

About one month ago I decided j had had it with cheap veneered panels. I hated how the veneer usually looked and I also hated how thin it was. If a person is to look at the veneer wrong you'll put a dent to the ply. So it sparked myself to invest in a bag press. I had thought about getting a normal Venturi press but I did want to use my loud compressor. So I bought he excel 5 system with the vacuum pods from Veneersupplies.com.

After buying the vacuum pods I realized I could have made made my own and probably better but it got me started with ideas and also still works really well for clamping panels to my table for profiling with a router or doing some sanding. I even clamped a piece vertically on the side of my table and it worked awesome. You will understand how they work by looking at this link Here. The pump had enough power to hold the pods to my MDF top and hold a piece of poplar to the podz and lift my 100-150 pound table no problem!

The pump out of the box takes about 20-30 minutes to put together and is some assembly required. However, I feel that is why it can be sold at this price point. It came with outstanding instructions and I had zero issues putting it together. The pump runs extremely quite and a foot switch can also be purchased which is totally worth it.

I have purchased a vacuum bag from veneer supplies and also a lot of curly cherry veneer and a 4 X 8 of cherry veneer for the backside. This will be my first real experience with using segmented veneer and putting it together myself. I will update more on how the system works later this week after doing some practice runs with it.

The other thing I have to say is the owner joe and his outstanding customer service. After I placed the order on a Tuesday night I recieved an email Wednesday morning first thing letting me know that my order will be shipped that day and have me a run down of how quality is his number one objective. He than emailed me after the order shipped and told me not to hesitate to email with any questions. Naturally we all have questions so I sent a few and within an hour he had replied everytime. I was very impressed with his and if all goes well I will continue to order all my veneer and supplies from him.

As stated above I will give another update when the rest of my order gets here Monday.

 

[tjbnwi]

I've had nothing but great experiences with Joe.

Tom

 

[Jesse Cloud]

+1 on Joe.  He has helped me out several times.  His website is an jewel!  I never go there without learning a thing or two.

Good luck with your projects.

 

[ear3]

Anyone have experience comparing this system to the Vac-Sys?

About one month ago I decided j had had it with cheap veneered panels. I hated how the veneer usually looked and I also hated how thin it was. If a person is to look at the veneer wrong you'll put a dent to the ply. So it sparked myself to invest in a bag press. I had thought about getting a normal Venturi press but I did want to use my loud compressor. So I bought he excel 5 system with the vacuum pods from Veneersupplies.com.

After buying the vacuum pods I realized I could have made made my own and probably better but it got me started with ideas and also still works really well for clamping panels to my table for profiling with a router or doing some sanding. I even clamped a piece vertically on the side of my table and it worked awesome. You will understand how they work by looking at this link Here. The pump had enough power to hold the pods to my MDF top and hold a piece of poplar to the podz and lift my 100-150 pound table no problem!

The pump out of the box takes about 20-30 minutes to put together and is some assembly required. However, I feel that is why it can be sold at this price point. It came with outstanding instructions and I had zero issues putting it together. The pump runs extremely quite and a foot switch can also be purchased which is totally worth it.

I have purchased a vacuum bag from veneer supplies and also a lot of curly cherry veneer and a 4 X 8 of cherry veneer for the backside. This will be my first real experience with using segmented veneer and putting it together myself. I will update more on how the system works later this week after doing some practice runs with it.

The other thing I have to say is the owner joe and his outstanding customer service. After I placed the order on a Tuesday night I recieved an email Wednesday morning first thing letting me know that my order will be shipped that day and have me a run down of how quality is his number one objective. He than emailed me after the order shipped and told me not to hesitate to email with any questions. Naturally we all have questions so I sent a few and within an hour he had replied everytime. I was very impressed with his and if all goes well I will continue to order all my veneer and supplies from him.

As stated above I will give another update when the rest of my order gets here Monday.

 

[Tayler_mann]

Anyone have experience comparing this system to the Vac-Sys?

About one month ago I decided j had had it with cheap veneered panels. I hated how the veneer usually looked and I also hated how thin it was. If a person is to look at the veneer wrong you'll put a dent to the ply. So it sparked myself to invest in a bag press. I had thought about getting a normal Venturi press but I did want to use my loud compressor. So I bought he excel 5 system with the vacuum pods from Veneersupplies.com.

After buying the vacuum pods I realized I could have made made my own and probably better but it got me started with ideas and also still works really well for clamping panels to my table for profiling with a router or doing some sanding. I even clamped a piece vertically on the side of my table and it worked awesome. You will understand how they work by looking at this link Here. The pump had enough power to hold the pods to my MDF top and hold a piece of poplar to the podz and lift my 100-150 pound table no problem!

The pump out of the box takes about 20-30 minutes to put together and is some assembly required. However, I feel that is why it can be sold at this price point. It came with outstanding instructions and I had zero issues putting it together. The pump runs extremely quite and a foot switch can also be purchased which is totally worth it.

I have purchased a vacuum bag from veneer supplies and also a lot of curly cherry veneer and a 4 X 8 of cherry veneer for the backside. This will be my first real experience with using segmented veneer and putting it together myself. I will update more on how the system works later this week after doing some practice runs with it.

The other thing I have to say is the owner joe and his outstanding customer service. After I placed the order on a Tuesday night I recieved an email Wednesday morning first thing letting me know that my order will be shipped that day and have me a run down of how quality is his number one objective. He than emailed me after the order shipped and told me not to hesitate to email with any questions. Naturally we all have questions so I sent a few and within an hour he had replied everytime. I was very impressed with his and if all goes well I will continue to order all my veneer and supplies from him.

As stated above I will give another update when the rest of my order gets here Monday.

[member=37411]Edward A Reno III[/member]

I have not compared the two, however, I feel the excel 5 is better for veneer where the festool system is the best for clamping. The excel 5 I believe moves more CFM so it would empty a veneer bag a bit easier. Also it has a bleed valve so you can turn the static pressure down to an ample clamping pressure for veneer.

I have thought about buying the clamping head from festool and retro fitting it to accept the excel 5 pump I just cannot come to paying 500-700 for it so I'm going to build my own that resembles the Festool.

At the price point of the excel system I think it is a better choice. I really wanted the Festool but I didn't have $1,400 unfortunately. So where the Excel lacks (the clamping system) I will have to use my inventiveness and my overactive brain to make a better clamping head for it.

 

[ear3]

Thanks [member=42383]Tayler_mann[/member] I was thinking explicitly about their respective capabilities for clamping.  Obviously the podz don't have the versatility of the Vac-Sys, but from what you describe, they seem to have a pretty good amount of clamping force.

 

[Tayler_mann]

The clamping force is definitely more than adequate. I use mine on my MFT made from MDF which of course lets a certain amount of air through and with the pump running I find it hard to knock it free purposely. As stated before the applicability of the pods is far less than the Fedtool system, however, you could easily make your own system that would work just as well.

 

[rst]

I've been using the two of thehttp://virutex.com/vacuumclamp-modelsvn-470, the basic model as I am not enamored with the venturi vac systems that they offer because of the hissing of the venturi (I know what they sound like as I have a cold air gun I've used with my table saw to cut thick plastics) on top of the air compressor noise.  I bought the two for less than $500.00 and I already had used commercial vac pump that I have used for the last 20 years on my jigs.  I did buy the Vac I and II as they offer me more flexibilty and the vac heads will hold more types of surfaces, I knew this because I use a very similar vac cup, hand pumped in the glazing industry to carry loads well above the 175 lb ratings for the individual cups and their heads are very similar to the heads on cups sold for carrying textured glass.

 

[Steve-Rice]

Tayler,
Welcome to the wonderful world of veneering!

I have a 9 foot Poly bag from veneersupplies.com and I am very happy with it. I use it with my professional pump from vacupress.com.  You might want to try certainlywood.com for veneer as their selection and pricing is significantly better than Joe’s.  I would also recommend Joe’s waterless veneer tape which I have used extensively.  For general veneering questions and info, try the forum on vacupress.com’s website.  A lot of great information out there.

Best of luck!