Barrel top dresser delaminated

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stuckinthemud

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I have a barrel top dresser in my damp garage and one end of the top has delaminated over about 6 inches from one end- maybe been dripped on from roof condensation? Anyway, the laminates have corrugated/rippled just to complicate matters. Any advice on how to repair this situation?
 
I have a barrel top dresser in my damp garage and one end of the top has delaminated over about 6 inches from one end- maybe been dripped on from roof condensation? Anyway, the laminates have corrugated/rippled just to complicate matters. Any advice on how to repair this situation?
Hard to say for sure until you show pictures. On a flat surface the corrugated surface you described can sometimes be recovered by playing steam over it to soften, then clamping it under something like a granite chopping board.
You can use a steam cleaner, or even a steam iron. If you don't do your own ironing then wait for the boss to go out, she might not appreciate the repurposing of her iron :)
Joking aside I have an old steam iron and a steam cleaner in the workshop, they are invaluable tools for repairing veneer.
Do not apply an iron directly on the wood, a proper linen tea towel is the best thing to use over the wood to protect it, nothing synthetic that is going to melt.
If it's old then the steam can sometimes re activate original glue and when you unclamp it can be good to go. Other times you can unclamp to find it is flat, but still delaminated. Then you have to get glue in between and clamp again.
Feeler gauges can be useful for getting the glue in between.
Doing any of this on a curved surface will be fun and games.
For small blisters you can use hypodermic syringe and needle sold for refilling printer cartridges to inject glue. You can't generally buy sharp needles, but easy enough to grind the ends of the square tipped printer ones.
 
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Only time I have done this on a curved surface was on a clock similar to the picture, where the top and one side of the curved hood had the veneer badly separated and blistered.
I used a number of pine slats about 1/2 inch wide, dictated by the narrowest clamps I had, and a couple of inches or so deep. Steam a small area, clamp on a slat narrow side down. Steam the next bit, another slat. Just keep going down the curve. Worked out well. One problem you may well have is that the veneer will have shrunk slightly, so even once you have it flat there may be a small gap at the edges.
In this case had to remove the crystalline remains of the old glue first. Steel shim stock or feeler gauges are good, depending on how far under the veneer you need to go.
This was an 18th century clock with thick hand cut veneer. Not sure how it would work out on something more modern with thinner veneer. Logically it ought to be easier if the veneer is thinner, but then thinner veneer is probably going to distort and pucker up more, so who knows.
 

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