How can I apply veneer to cylinder/conical furniture legs?

[Ali]

Can anyone shed light on how to best apply veneer onto cylinder (round) or conical furniture legs (e.g. Table leg)?

Square legs and tapered legs are no problem, but can't wrap my head round how best to do this in a home/small workshop setup?

 

[MattRoberts]

Cylinder - just dry fit with tape to mark the line and get the cut spot on.

Conical - I think this would be a compete nightmare.

To be honest, both are likely to be less than perfect, due to the lack of ability to flush trim

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

Veneering with hot hide glue is likely best. You could probably find a good method of doing so online. Conical would not be done from one veneer, you would have to cut tapered veneer so that it would go round the cone and maintain the grain direction along the long axis.

It is possible you could veneer round a cylindrical object with more usual woodworking glue, using cauls out of flexy ply to spread the pressure from surgical tubing wrapped round and round in a helix, the loose ends held with a clamp. It would need a bit of experimentation though. I've only done it once myself, but it did work.

Mike.

 

[MattRoberts]

I would have thought contact cement would be the best adhesive to use? And painters tape should be enough to hold it, depending on the thickness of the veneer

 

[custard]

Here's the reply if you voted the same way that I did in the referendum

Although I've never veneered a cylinder I have done plenty of veneering on curved surfaces, i.e. parts of cylinder, and they work just fine in a vac bag.

However, if you wanted to complete a cylinder in one shot then the key problem is pressure. I'd be sceptical about segmented cauls, or wrapping bungy cord around the job, or any other such "wizard wheezes". There's every likelihood they'll either take way too long to prepare or that they'll do a poor quality job. Instinctively I'd say the better route is to simply remove the need for sustained pressure, so like Mike suggested use hide glue, or alternatively use an "iron-on" veneer which you can easily make yourself with PVA, or even simpler with commercial sheets of iron-on adhesive. Handling the join is slightly trickier with the iron-on route, but iron-on and hide glue both share the characteristic that the bond loosens with heat so you can use the same, well proven method of overlapping and then trimming back with a scalpel.

Regarding veneering a conical shape I did once do something vaguely similar for a box lid. Mike's right again, the problem there isn't the actual gluing (the same principles apply as for cylinders) the hard bit is orientating the grain. On a cylinder I'd be tempted to use an almost grainless timber like Swiss Pear so the join isn't too obvious, but on a cone I'd be tempted to follow the same steps as in veneering a sunburst and actually accentuate the grain. If I get the time later today I'll dig out a photo of the conical box lid that I did which illustrates the effect.

And here's the reply if you didn't

Just use contact adhesive and a staple gun. It's a breeze and I guarantee you'll be delighted with the result.

 

[Droogs]

veneering compund curves is always tricky. I've found, for me, it's best to use hide glue. depending on the severity of the 2nd axis curve, you many be best to first create a template. Use thin card secured at a fixed point and then lay it over the surface to be covered and when you need to create a well creased dart (just like dress making), which you will then cut out of the pattern. You will be left with the shape that you need the veneer to be in flat as it were in order to then cover the substrrate.
Think about the way that map globe makers print the paper covering of the globe in long leaf shapes which are then slowly joined. This is where hide glue comes in trumps as you can more easily correct errors using the heat of the iron. It takes time but is doable.

the main problem is the wood you select as custard said with regard to the grain matching. A way round it is to use a veneer with no visible linear grain as such or a burr, that way the join is less noticable or you make a feature of it. It also helps to use a lot of veneer softener so the the veneer is almost like a chamois. but then you need to really control the drying - very slowly, put it in a platic bag once done and leave for a good few weeks with a small hole and letting it get bigger as time goes on.