Competition 063/07 StevieB - Lacewood Veneered Box

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Newbie_Neil

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OK, A little late in the day but with luck I think I can still make the deadline [-o<

After much thought and idle speculation it is with trepidation that I have decided to embark on the adventure that is veneering. Observing the maxim that time spent in reconnaissance (yes, I did have to look up the spelling (Hi Steve!)) is seldom time wasted advice was duly sought from the assembled members, and lo the oracles did supply the requisite pearls of wisdom. Use a vac bag some cried, while others did estoll the virtues of clamps and formers. Yet others the use of a sandbag. All agreed that a first attempt at veneering should be on a flat surface with a plain veneer. Nothing fancy. To this end I tried a test of a plain veneer on MDF, simply clamped between to other pieces of MDF for even pressure. Success! Who would have thought that gluing a thin piece of wood to a thicker piece would be so easy. The rumours of sitting under a cold waterfall for a month to purify the soul and empty the mind before attempting veneering were clearly over-stated.

Emboldened by this trial run all thoughts of plain veneers on flat surfaces were out the window. Storage with a curved surface was called for, nay a curved veneered surface, maybe with birds eye maple or an exquisite burr of some exotic species. The possibilities were endless. After a quick cold shower in lieu of a handy waterfall, and a slight tempering of the exquisiteness of the veneer due to cost the build process could begin.

Storage. Hmm, what to store. Well worry about that later, build the storage container and something can always be found to fit it. As to the curved surface, well ideas ranged from bow fronted chests of drawers to barrel topped chests with secret compartments, and eventually settled on a jewelry box with a curved lid. This flash of revelation was brought about by a recognition that my enthusiasm far outweighed my abilities, and the nagging doubt that time constraints may mean something simple was more likely to be finished on time. So dimensions roughly sketched out and layout kind of sorted it was time to form the carcass.

6mm MDF was the order of the day, and the router table the best way of forming the joints necessary without the use of a table saw. The curve was sketched, adjusted and moulded until the height of the top was about right, then roughed out on the bandsaw.

SteveBevan-venbox1.JPG


Success! And it even fitted together squarely (ish).

SteveBevan-venbox2.JPG


Now for the lid. Difficult to bend 6mm MDF. A scour of the internet revealed 1.5mm birch ply, expensive from a model supplier but easy to bend. A quick order later, some judicial finishing of the edges of the carcass with chisel and block plane (look away all hand tool purists, handtools on MDF is a terrible affliction but needs must) and the lid is fitted and clamped.

SteveBevan-venbox3.JPG


The downside of 1.5mm birch ply is that its, well, only 1.5mm thick. This means the lid deforms quite nicely if you press on it. No problem, simply add another layer. Thus the lid is now two sheets of 1.5mm birch ply. No deformation with pressure and a nice looking box ready for veneering. SWMBOs comment was but if you glue the lid shut how do you open it? Watch this space says I.

As it stands the box is now in the clamps, veneer applied to the two ends with blocks to spread the pressure evenly. Oh yes, I may be daft in attempting to veneer a curved surface as my first veneering project, but given a choice, the flat ends lessen the steepness of the learning curve to a climbable slope I hope.

And so it sits, waiting, to be revealed in all its glory by the end of March. Work may well prevent its completion by the deadline, but whoever said its the taking part rather than the winning that is important clearly didn't hanker after the prize available enough. Ah there is always hope until the deadline has passed.
 
Progress! Well of a fashion but more of that later. After trimming the lid of the box to fit the sides (I deliberately oversized it then trimmed it to be flush and square with the sides) it was time for some veneer. The two ends and front and back went fine, again by oversizing the veneer and trimming back flush with the sides of the box. Glue was normal white wood glue diluted with a little water (some say 10% water but how do you measure a volume of wood glue?) so I just used a couple of sprays with a plant sprayer and mixed with a piece of scrap. Results can be seen below:

SteveBevan-venbox5.JPG


and

SteveBevan-venbox6.JPG


Clamping here was relatively easy, just some scrap pieces of MDF with a sheet of clingfilm between the veneer and the scrap to prevent any glue squeeze sticking my scrap to the box. Now onto the curved surface.

I didnt have access to a vac bag, so went with the low tech approach of the sandbag. First problem was actually finding a bag big enough. Food bags were too small, carrier bags have holes in them so in the end I went for a turkey basting bag (I kid you not) which was just about big enough. The second problem, and let this be a warning to anyone else beginning veneering, is that it pays to measure your box size against your veneer before you start! After a few choice swear words I have had to try and book match two smaller pieces of veneer across the lid. This is far from ideal since the veneer was not chosen to look good when bookmatched, and it over complicates the technique for a beginner. All for the sake of about half an inch (please add your own joke here if you wish). Since I didnt plan to bookmatch I also didnt have any veneer tape. So relying on luck, the benevolence of the veneering Gods and 3 kilos of play sand pinched from my sons sandpit (not forgetting the turkey basting bag) a very low tech attempt at veneering a curved surface was initiated:

SteveBevan-venbox7.JPG


Had the veneering gods smiled upon me? Had my luck held? Were the rumours about the cold waterfall indeed true after all? Well sadly it seems that the answers to these questions are no, no and yes respectively. Upon lifting the sandbag this morning it appears that it hadnt gone quite as well as I had expected. I was concerned that the veneer would not take at the edge of the curved surface. This appears not to have been a problem however, but that I may have inadvertantly caused another by adding sand to this area. I have a small lift where the glue does not seem to have stuck to the veneer about an inch in from one corner. Its like an air bubble in wallpaper. I can push it down and it pops back up again. The only other explanation I can think of is that I didnt wet the back of the veneer enough, or wet it too much and the veneer has wrinkled before the glue took. Either way I need to have a play this evening and see what I can do to salvage the situation. (No photo yet as I lifted the sandbag just before leaving for work this morning).

Next stage, if I feel its worth salvaging, is to apply some boxwood or black stringing to the edges of the sides and lid to break up the plain-ness of the veneer. This is on order but not yet arrived so fingers crossed for Royal Mail.

Moral of the story is that for even a moderately curved surface a vac bag is probably essential, although a good fitting former and clamps would probably work equally as well. A sand bag is not a guaranteed success method, and although better than I could have done with clamps alone is probably only suited to flat surfaces (where clamps would probably be better anyway).
 
Well, in between having to go to a conference for work, my sons developing chicken pox and putting my house on the market I have managed very little workshop time! With just one day to go here is the progress so far.

The problem with the veneered lid I did manage to solve in the end, and many thanks for all the kind words and suggestions. Since the bubble was so close to the edge, I managed to lever up the veneer from the edge with a scalpel blade and re-glue and clamp. As mentioned previously I wanted to add some banding to the box to break up the edges of the veneer. My initial plan was to do all edges and sides. However when the banding arrived it proved impossible to get it to bend round the curve on the ends of the box. Consequently I simplified the idea to just the top front and back as below:

SteveBevan-venbox8.JPG


SteveBevan-venbox10.JPG


Time then to remove the lid. With a new 3mm router cutter this went fairly smoothly. I was a bit worried the banding would chip out but fortunately it held.

SteveBevan-venbox11.JPG


The next decision was how to re-attach the lid. As the sides of the box are 6mm putting in a hinge was a little difficult although a hinged box was my favoured option. A hinge on the outside of the box was a possibility but I didn't think it would look right, either with a butterfly hinge or a piano hinge. so the end result was that the lid should be free floating and removable. This meant either routing a lip inside the box (should have thought about this before construction I feel!) or adding a strip to serve as something to hold the lid in place. In the end due to time constraints and simplicity this is the option I took. A 5mm thick by 18mm curved top moulding as shown below

SteveBevan-venbox12.JPG


This was Tuesday night. Last night I finished the inside of the box in a manner which I am still unsure of whether I like or not (no pics yet, but will post tomorrow on completion hopefully) and added veneer to the exposed edges of the box where the lid was cut away, which leaves me this evening to finish the outside of the box. So cutting the deadline down to the wire, hopefully this will be finished this evening!
 
Final pics of the lacewood veneered box in its completed state. Its original purpose was to be a jewelery box but it doesn't feel like one now it is complete. As a consequence it is currently awaiting both a home and a purpose!

The box is constructed of 6mm MDF veneered in 0.7mm thick lacewood veneer (also called London plane I believe) and is the first attempt I have made at veneering. The banding is a 5mm black dyed box wood and a 5mm plain boxwood strip. I cut back the lacewood veneer to the MDF surface and added the strips together with mitred corners. The lid of the box is 2 pieces of lacewood veneer since I didn't have a large enough piece to do it in one hit and although its not a particularly good veneer for bookmatching if you squint you may be able to tell its bookmatched rather than random. The finish is shellac sanding sealer and friction polish, with a buffing after application.



SteveBevan-venbox13.JPG


SteveBevan-venbox14.JPG


Internally I wanted something that would contrast with the highly patterned veneer but was not sure what. Originally I was going to felt line the box but in the end decided on something which I am still not sure whether I like or not. I went for an ultra high gloss paint finish in signal red. I was after something that would almost look like a lacquer, extremely glossy and without brush marks. While it doesn't really look like a lacquer there are no brush marks so I am happy with the finish and the contrast, I just cannot decide whether it works or not!

SteveBevan-venbox15.JPG


SteveBevan-venbox16.JPG


I could always keep it shut I guess!

Thanks for reading this far, its been an experience. I will certainly be trying veneering again, but I think probably on flat floating panels in a surround rather than on a curved surface.
 
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