Home made thick veneer?

[RobertMP]

I've got some beech and am looking at getting started on the making of my table project.

It will look something like this -

With breadboard ends on the main top and the pull out extensions. I know the problems with breadboard ends so I want to fake it rather than use solid wood.

I was thinking along the lines of resawing a planed surface off some planks down to say 5mm thick on the bandsaw then thicknessing them down to 3mm ready to stick onto 22mm MDF to give me a 25mm thick table top. The sides could be trimmed with the same or thicker and the ends could then have 'breadboards' fully glued on.

22mm MDF seems a bit hard to come by locally. 18mm would mean very thick 'veneer' is that a problem?

The other difficulty with thicknessing to 3mm is that my thicknesser stops at about 7mm so the 'veneer' would have to sit on top of a bit of say 12mm MDF to lift it up. I have done similar before on some thin strips. never tried it on something say 4" wide.

Just wondering what the best way is to go about this.

edit.

Oh and I have used bought veneered MDF before. I'm not considering it for this as I recon it will be too easy to damage and could not be resanded to remove say a deep scratch. And it looks too good/continuous and will not match the other stuff in the room which have solid wood tops and real breadboard ends.

 

[WellsWood]

I think you'll need to veneer both sides for balance, particularly with such thick veneer, so 18mm will give you about 24mm finish.

As to the planing, I think the traditional way is to stick it to an MDF sled with double sided tape. Be careful which tape you use, and test first. Some carpet tape for instance is pressure sensitive, and you may end up with beautifully planed 3mm veneer stuck permanently to the sled #-o

 

[woodbloke]

Thick veneer is not a problem...in fact it's far preferable to the 0.6mm commercial stuff. If you use a new 'meat & fish' blade in your bandsaw the finish is so good that the sawn surface can be glued straight onto the 18mm ground. Prepare a fresh face on the material on the surfacing table of the p/t each time before the next slice is taken off, so that you've always got one sawn and one planed side on the veneer.
After it's been glued, plane it down to the right thickness to obtain the overall dimension needed, so if you want to finish at 22mm then two veneers of 3mm will give you plenty to play around with.
Whatever you do, don't put thin stuff through the thicknesser on a sled, 'cos unless you're very lucky, you'll end up with mangled bits of timber being spewed out the other end. Simples :lol: - Rob

 

[RobertMP]

Never crossed my mind I'd need to do both sides! Always ready to listen but just wondering what would happen with singled sided? I'm guessing it could cup or dish the panel. Didn't appreciate it could do that with say 3mm on 22mm MDF. looks like I might need some more Beech.

 

[FatFreddysCat]

Something worth thinking about is that thick veneers react more with the environment - they will move more with changes in relative humidity - so you may need to consider a stronger adhesive such as urea formaldehyde (Cascomite, etc). They're also more difficult to flatten that thin veneers. There's an interesting article about thick bandsawn veneers by David Savage here (although you do need to keep reminding yourself that he "mis-spells" bandsaw as handsaw throughout the article. Perhaps someone with more experience in the field like Sghain Dubh would like to comment?

 

[RobertMP]

Cascamite.... now there's a name I remember from school woodwork an awful long time ago

See what you mean about the typos

So both sides it is. Hmmm.. I have some surplus Oak but not an excess of Beech. would it matter if the underside was a different wood?

 

[woodbloke]

So both sides it is. Hmmm.. I have some surplus Oak but not an excess of Beech. would it matter if the underside was a different wood?

It doesn't matter what you put on the underside, just as long as it balances the top show surface, so oak would be good...each veneered surface ought to be the same thickness though - Rob

 

[RobertMP]

Just bumping this with a quick question...


I've been planing and cutting slices of wood on and off for a couple of days now (more me not sticking at it than actually taking that long) and I have cut all the Beech I need for the top. I've also cut about half the Oak I'll need to cover the undersides. Then I noticed an offcut of 3mm plywood and started wondering if I could have used that for the underside? Its the dark stuff with a thick middle ply and two paper thin outer plies (sp?).

I can get the last of the Oak cut tomorrow if it does need to be similar wood underneath... or I could just put away what Oak I have cut and save some time....

Got the Cascamite. I'll start a WIP thread in the next day or two.