Thread: Where to start with veneers?

There's quite a few veneer suppliers, try a quick google search. ( try Peter Scott Young, I got some from him) Or Carbatec sell a small range. As for books, I would just go for YouTube. I have made one veneered little table. The plans were in Australian Woodsmith. If you want to send me a pm I'll see if I can find some articles.
I am about to embark on a veneered top dining table. For the little table I just sandwiched the panel between some mdf and used some cauls, but for the dining table am looking at a vacuum bag option.

Alternatively you if your able you may be able to cut your own veneer.

Overall I didn't find the veneer process to difficult. Just take time and get the seams as tight as possible and pick up some veneer tape( think I got mine from Peter as well).

This is a very good book to start with. I just searched on my phone , not sure where it is?

Look for companies that press their own veneered boards, they should be able to sort you out with loose veneers. We use Timberwood Panels and Plyco at work

Veneering is very satisfying. It is quite easy to do once you have done some practice and got the basics down. I use veneer quite extensively and use hide glue as the adhesive. I tend to stay away from mdf as a drop of water on it can create a major issue that needs to be fixed. The Veneer Association of Australia have some very good books/handouts on their website which can be downloaded and are really helpful when trying to learn about using veneer. If you want to get into woodwork, this is one avenue that I would recommend, what you can do is almost limitless. If you have any particular questions send me a PM and i will give you what help i can.

Give it a go

Router

Is veneering really cheaper?

i live in a different world to you guys in terms of access - and subsequently pricing - of solid wood products so I'm clueless here. But in terms of cost of veneer, cost of quality substrate, and the labour to join them together, what does it cost ( say per square meter ) to use veneer?

Forever curious...

Originally Posted by John.G

Is veneering really cheaper?

i live in a different world to you guys in terms of access - and subsequently pricing - of solid wood products so I'm clueless here. But in terms of cost of veneer, cost of quality substrate, and the labour to join them together, what does it cost ( say per square meter ) to use veneer?

Forever curious...

Easy X 2 the cost in time than the solid John .

Edit . The thing about veneering is, there are designs and styles of woodwork that cant be done in the solid . Veneering offers a whole lot of scope that way, because of that, just the cost doesn't come into it .
I make traditional stuff mostly , and follow some of the methods that were used in the past . That is, laying veneer onto solid timbers. pressing with clamps or Hammering with the veneer hammer. Hide glue and the later ones sometimes. Its like making the piece twice . very rewarding though . Not so much in a financial way maybe ? . You have to get the quoting right if your doing it for $

So I try to stick to the solid construction pieces that I know there is a profit to be made . The veneer jobs I did years back were very good for reputation building, not so great with the dollars I received at the time, but worth what money can not possibly buy in an advertisement of what I could do for a client. Its a great way to show off wood working skills.

Rob

Originally Posted by auscab

Easy X 2 the cost in time than the solid John .

Edit . The thing about veneering is, there are designs and styles of woodwork that cant be done in the solid . Veneering offers a whole lot of scope that way, because of that, just the cost doesn't come into it .
I make traditional stuff mostly , and follow some of the methods that were used in the past . That is, laying veneer onto solid timbers. pressing with clamps or Hammering with the veneer hammer. Hide glue and the later ones sometimes. Its like making the piece twice . very rewarding though . Not so much in a financial way maybe ? . You have to get the quoting right if your doing it for $

So I try to stick to the solid construction pieces that I know there is a profit to be made . The veneer jobs I did years back were very good for reputation building, not so great with the dollars I received at the time, but worth what money can not possibly buy in an advertisement of what I could do for a client. Its a great way to show off wood working skills.

Rob

Thanks Rob.
The reason I asked was I had a quick look online and it appeared that for the "Australian Exotics" - the species of domestic origin but probably harder to get hold of then most of the imports - the pricing I was seeing on veneer leaf was around 50- 80% of the price of the same wood in 25mm boards. I know from the inside the difference between advertised retail and trade pricing but it still seemed kind of steep.
I've got some really good handed down veneer furniture here - but it's from the era when veneer was more expensive to make then solid boards and so was reserved for "special" timbers of high figure... and it's been veneered onto Kauri Pine. A lot of what I see in the online marketplace seems to me to be pretty ordinary grade veneer at that, not saying that theres not stilll some supurbly figured veneer on the market but a lot of it seemed pretty bland.

Maybe I need to think about a slicer lol.

G'day, I use veneer a lot, I make my own from Aussie hardwoods that I collect. It's a great way to make some really figured wood go along way and another reason I use it is it can simplify some design issues related to solid timber. I am about to start a dinning table top for a snooker table using home made veneers from figured spotted gum. I'll send you a link of a video I made on this very topic as I'm not sure I can add a link here.

Picked up a piece of veneer at Monaro Timber this afternoon to play with ... and accidentally left it there, whoops!

Originally Posted by NathanaelBC

Picked up a piece of veneer at Monaro Timber this afternoon to play with ... and accidentally left it there, whoops!

If that was the only thing that you needed then it is really bad. But if you had a full car of items then no big deal.

Ha no bought $250 of timber too, hence why I left the veneer on the desk. Will be interesting to play with this brush box board, apparently it's a bit of a beast to work with. Got some nice fun stuff to play with too like Walnut.