Thread: Veneering, will this work ?

Originally Posted by Arron

DOORS
1. Rip up some old, very dry western red cedar to about 16 x 30. Join them using crosslinked PVA, to give a core about 700 x 320 x 16.
2. Rip some silky oak timber to 16mm thick, and join this to the WRC core, say 10mm thick up the straight edge and 40mm thick up the curved edge.
3. Fix further strips of silky oak timber to top and bottom of the door. This will mean there will be no apparent endgrain except for small bits on the side where the strips overlap. I dont know how to simulate endgrain..
4. Plane the core very flat and smooth.
5. Cut the finished core to the finished shape, oversize by about 2mm.
6. Cover one side with crosslinked PVA.
7. Lay a sheet of veneer across it, and working outwards from the middle, press the veneer down using a piece of timber with a rolled edge.
8. Leave it to dry in a home-made caul press - consisting of a few sheets of MDF with heavy timbers as crosspieces of slightly curved profile.
9. Do the other side.
10. Plane all round, both veneer and timber strip together, to the finished size.

Howdy Arron, good to see your gunna give some veneering a go All you wrote is pretty well spot on, but a few tips.

First determine wich is the "open and closed" side of your veneer. Hold it and bend it across the grain. One side will curl up easy and that is the closed side which is the best side. The other is harder to bend and is the open side which is not so good. When its cut at the veneering plant the planer knife will fracture the fibre on one side of the veneer and it shows up a different color when polished (a problem if bookmatched but not when slip matched)

Also when covering the core with pva, a rubber window squeege is the go, makes easy work of it.

Also get a bottle with a spray mister on it and fill with water and about 3 or 4% glycerine, and just before you apply the veneer to the glued core, spray the veneer face (outer face, not the side to be glued). The moisture will counter ballance the moisture in the pva, and the glycerine is excelent at softening the fibre giving you a better chance at a flat job.

Also have some news paper ready to place between the veneer and the cauls. 4 or 5 sheets each side is enough (make sure its even) They act as a cusioning to help spread an even load over the veneered surface.

And make sure you have EVERYTHING you need before you start, Glue, tray, roller/squeege, cails, clamps, news paper etc, because time is crucial and you must be quick.

Originally Posted by Arron

SIDE PANELS
The sides are essentially narrow rectangles. They will be panels in a rail and style type assembly so no sides or ends will be visible. If it has to be, they can be perfectly flat - but the appearance of the dresser would be greatly improved if they have a shallow curve, as shown in the attached image. Am I likely to achieve success without a vacuum press? If I spread the glue and press the veneer over, will the veneer bend smoothly and is ther some way I can do this without having to make a custom-made one-off-use caul press ? Again, I will be getting four sheets, two for each side and about 30mm oversize all round.
thanks for your help
Arron

Glueing with out a caul isnt that hard. Coat the core and the veneer with pva, just a fine coat not to much. Then spray the other side of the veneer with the water/glycerin and carefuly allow the glue to "semi" dry. It might take 4 or 5 minutes depending on the temp and humidity. If the veneer starts to curl apply some more water/glycerin to the outer face. When about 80% dry carefully apply the veneer, work from the middle out with a nice smooth hard block that has slightly rounded sides, and follow this with a warm iron (with nice clean face) This should be enough to have a sucsessful veneering job. Oh and lastly, if you get bubbles or a patch that didnt stick, just prick or finley cut with a scalpel and inject with some glue and iron with lightly dampend cloth. Good luck

Lignum, thanks for the tips about the squeegee and the spray. Always something more to learn.

Many thanks, Lignum.

Arron

Hi Lignum!

In the next few (shed) days, I'll be veneering some +/-2mm thick resawn Red Gum veneer onto a 'D' shaped base apron for a small hall table. Would you recommend "ironing" this thickness of material, or is just a conventional veneer hammer (actually a shop-made rounded edge board) and cauls used in a frame enough?

Cheers!