Cutting (oak) veneers.

[nev]

Afternoon all.
To cut some 0.5 - 1mm leaves of oak from this bit of 3x3 to glue back together to form a curve, do I cut from A to B or A to C or does it not matter?
I'm hoping its A-C as the black pen line is a split/shake.
many thanks in advance.

 

[custard]

In an end grain photo of Oak it's easy to get the medullary rays confused with the growth rings. Ideally you'd want your lamina to be quarter sawn, so the quarter sawn face (that's the face with the distinctive Oak ray figure) should be parallel to the bandsaw blade. Regarding your shake, a small flaw buried deep in the lamination isn't the end of the world, especially if you're using a gap filling harder glue like a UF, as the glue will fill the void. Plywood manufacturers commit bigger crimes in almost every sheet!

I'll post some photos later to make it clearer.

Incidentally, 0.5mm is way too thin for lamination work, it's even too thin to be a saw cut veneer. It depends on the radius of your curve and how stable/rigid you need it to be, but finishing at around about 3-4mm isn't a bad average. You go thinner for more stability or a tighter curve, thicker to get the job done faster.

 

[custard]

This what the medullary rays look like on Oak (this just happens to be Brown Oak, but at the end of the day Oak is Oak) so this is the quarter sawn face.

And here I've marked with a white lumber crayon on that board how I'd prefer to cut the lamina. By cutting quarter sawn there's a bit less chance of the individual laminations going all curly on you, which can then make the glue-up and pressing a bit fraught.

Good luck!

 

[nev]

Thanks Custard.
Ripped the oak and while I was there tried some ash and some walnut too. Next up - some bending (and probably a soaking beforehand).
For those interested - its an old (budget) Woodster2 BS412 bandsaw and a SuperTuff Premium Bandsaw Blade - 1/2" x 3/4 Vari-Tooth.

[youtube]1vVW1DmEoXA[/youtube]

 

[marcros]

have you got a wallpaper stripper, new? if so, you could make a simple steam bending setup. I haven't done much bending, but I struggled bending veneer with just soaking.

 

[nev]

possibly, somewhere in the depths.

 

[custard]

Unless you're tying it into a knot you don't need to soak or steam for lamination work, in fact that would cause rather than solve problems. You just need a former (waxed to keep the glue off) and more cramps than you can shake a stick at.

Good luck!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Baking parchment works well according to another thread.