How to make hf plywood bending press mold?

High frequency plywood bending press can be used to bend different shapes of curved plywood components. Such as chair, sofa arm rest, bed slats, guitar rim as well as other shape of products. There are three types of material which can be used to build up the molds

1). Metal mold

2). MDF mold

3). Plywood mold

For long term consideration, metal mold is the best choice for end user. If customer only produce one kind of shape products, they can choose metal mold. For types of shape products, metal mold costs is much higher than MDF mold or plywood mold. At the same time, the end user cannot process metal easily and conveniently. Because hf plywood bending press users are woodworking factory, they do not have equipment to process metal. Luckily, end user have much MDF or plywood material to make mold by their own machines. MDF or plywood are insulated material, it is also convenient to connect with high frequency machine and to keep warm. But metal mold will be more complex to connect with. Here is the table for the the mold disadvantage and advantage.

Mold material	Metal	MDF	Plywood
Costs	High	Low	Medium
Design and process	Hard	Easy	Easy
Warm keeping	Low	High	High
Durability	High	Low	Medium
Connect with HF power	Hard	Easy	Easy

End user can consider and choose the most suitable material to design and make the molds accordingly.

Here are working steps for mold making

1. Cut MDF/ plywood panel by CNC machine with required size.In order to support the mold, the support area should be 200mm wider than workpiece. Or the mold will change the shape and easy to damage. Meanwhile, the end users should consider the workpiece thickness when they make the mold

2. Use longer screws to fasten the plywood panel in one unit. The screw should be 50-100mm longer than the mold, in this way can be fasten on the press easily. Before fasten the plywood sheet, customer can spraed glue between layers in order to become solid

3. Use sand paper or milling tools to sand/ polish the surface of mold to make sure the surface smoothly all the time. If not, make up the surface by putty and let it dry well.

4. Cut 1.5-2mm thick aluminum sheet and laminate it on the connection area. Use nail or screws to fix it. Normally there are two parts of mold. One part can connect with HF machine positive pole and the other part connects with HF machine negative pole. The aluminum sheet are the electrodes. HF power will transfer between the electrodes. So the end user also needs consider the mold thickness. The mold should be thick enough to keep the insulation, if not, end user should add some dry panels (solid wood panel, MDF panel or plywood panel)