Nickbee

This project will be my 1st attempt at a veneering. The style of the box will be rail / style / panel construction similar to the plant stand I made recently:

http://www.routerforums.com/show-n-t...html#post63379

As you can tell from the title of my post I’m not a veneer expert. This is the 1st time I’m touching veneer as a raw material. I’ve done some reading and viewing which makes me think, “I can do this!”… I hope some veneer experts will tag along and make criticisms and suggestions so we can all learn from my experience here.

Here is some of the stuff I’ve watched and read to get ready:

Jonathan Benson’s Podcast on Woodworking online:
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/200...ter-craftsman/

Marc Adam’s video on Wood Magazine’s site:
http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/fil...layer&temp=yes

Furnitology Production’s video blog:
http://blip.tv/file/204224/
http://blip.tv/file/204723/

And the articles on Joe woodworker’s site:
http://www.joewoodworker.com/articles.htm

I also picked up the book “Veneering, a foundation course” by Mike Bulton:
http://www.amazon.com/Veneering-Foun...1292771&sr=8-1

Research is done, it’s time to get dirty.

I picked up 6 consecutive sheets of walnut burl from www.veneersupplies.com. Now I know burls are not the easiest veneers to work with, but I’ll be keeping it simple for this box. The game plan is to match all 4 outsides of the box and all 4 insides. All the veneer edges will be hidden in the groves of the rails / stiles. But I will make things more complicated for the inside bottom panel as I plan to try a 4 way book match.

The overall size of the box will be half a cube at 8” x 8” x 4”. The rails and stiles will be made from ½” x ½” walnut sticks (provided by a fellow woodworker). The panel substraights are going to be made from 1/8” birch ply. This is left over from my model airplane days. It’s sold as “aircraft ply”. It's made with 5 layers and is finished VERY smooth. Here’s a good source for it:

http://www.nationalbalsa.com/

Here are the raw materials:





The 1st step is to cut the substraight material for the panels. I cut them about 1/16" smaller than they need to be to have a little wiggle room when assembling the box. I fix any tear out from my table saw with some wood filler. I don't think it would be an issue but I don't want the risk of telegraphing.





After some filling and sanding I have all the substraights ready to go:



Time to break out the veneer. Since I want all 4 box sides to look identical my 1st task is to line up the sheets with features rather than the edges.



For this I get out my old cork building board and stick a few t-pins through two features on the 4 veneer sheets. This should line up all 4 sheets pretty close to each other.



Once things are lined up I place one of the ply sides on top of the stack and start cutting with a #2 xacto.



As I start cutting I understand way they say burls are hard to work with (and why they are not recommended for beginners). Cutting this stuff is like working with thin peanut brittle that has rice krispies mixed into it. While cutting the the 3rd side I was a bit too aggressive and tore out a chunk from under the substraight. I might have been able to tape it up during glue up but I decided to move up and try another cut. This time I took lighter passes with the knife and it worked out well:



I wonder if a nicely sharpened veneer saw would work better for this stuff. One of those is in my future, but not for this project.

So one side is done for all 4 sides and they look pretty similar as far as features.

The edges are decent and they are not critical at this point since they will be well buried and hidden in the rails / stiles.

One panel has a hole about 1/8" in size that I'll patch up before glue up:



Tomorrow I cut the pieces for the other side and break out the glue!

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harrysin

Looking great Nick, I'll take bets that you're going to end up as the forums veneering expert.

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Harry

Nickbee

Thanks Harry! I hope!!! I have this post going on woodnet also. I'll share any tips that get posted there. One guy recommended blue tape over the cut lines to minimize tear out. Might give that a try on the second set of panels.

challagan

Looking good Nick! Thanks for the photos!

Corey

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Nickbee

Getting ready to cut the 2nd set of sides I remembered an article I read in Fine Woodworking. It showed clamping down the straight edge when cutting veneer with a knife. So I gave this a try by claming a hardwood 1x2 on top of my substraight (straight edge):



This packed the veneer under the sub straight and made things much more stable. These cuts came out much cleaner:



Here are the other 4 sides ready to go:



The edges are not good enough for joining but I have a different game plan for the pieces I’ll need to join (4 way book match for the bottom).

Next is gluing up the side panels.

Nickbee

Here’s what I devised for platens or is it cauls? Maybe they are the one in the same? Someone who knows what they are talking about can chime in on this. Back to my platens / cauls:



3 layers of ¾” MDF and a layer 1/8” cork sheet. Marc Adams discusses on his pod cast how a clamp’s pressure distributes more evenly the further away it is. That’s the reason for the 3 layers of MDF. I figured the cork sheet would be a good idea because of the slightly uneven surface of the burl. But I bet it’s not necessary. Before breaking out the glue I cover the cork with wax paper:



Here’s the glue I’m using as recommended by Joe on veneersupplies.com:



The extra dark color should work well in case there is bleed through.

I also picked up a glue roller from veneer suppies.com:



The thin dense foam of the roller made spreading a thin even layer of glue a snap. From what I’ve read the glue should look like a layer of thin wet paint.

I place the veneer on the panel and go over it with seam roller. This works well with the initial tack of the glue. I hope this keeps everything in place as I clamp down:



I get as many clamps as I can around the platens and apply gradual even pressure from clamp to clamp:



I set my timer for an hour and wait with anticipation!

Nickbee

An hour is up and the clamps come off. So far so good. The panel looks flat and any bleed through is disguised well with the dark glue:



I set the panel on dowels so it continues to dry evenly and hopefully resists warping:



I’ll continue to glue up all the side panels and start contemplating my 4 way book match for the box floor.

curiousgeorge

Lookin' good Nick! I'm anxious to see how this turns out.

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George

If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem...

harrysin

Because I don't have you're patience Nick, I'll stick to making things from solid wood and use inlays as in the past.

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Harry

Nickbee

That makes two of us!