new project, veneering advice wanted

[markturner]

Hi, my next project is a media unit, built to a similar style as a sideboard we have. the sideboard is rosewood with 3 doors, that have an unusual veneered pattern of a central small circle ( 50mm) in the middle door, with radiating segments of veneer that get wider the further away from the centre they get, all around it, right across all three doors.

My unit will be an L shaped piece, in an alcove under the stairs, that will have one set of two doors then one set of three doors, as it turns through 90 degrees.

I am thinking it would be nice to try and reproduce the sunburst design from my sideboard on these sets of doors although I am not sure quite how tricky this will be to do. Am I biting off more than I can chew here for my second attempt at veneering or is it easier than it seems to do something like this? Any professionals here who can advise? I am also not sure how much veneer I would need to make this and how I would set it out.......

The size of the first set of doors overall is 1000mm x 700mm so 2 doors 500mm x 700mm, the other set is 3 500mm x 700mm

Any advise etc welcome, thanks,

Mark

 

[jimmyhenson]

If you can draw out your design you can get a good idea of how much veneer you will need. You will have a lot of waste in a sunburst pattern. Quarter sawn will look best but you are limited to narrow bundles. I number each piece before I make any cuts and check each leaf for any defects(there in nothing as annoying as having the job nearly complete and finding a damaged leaf). When cutting the veneer to shape, cut all the required leaves on on side, take out the last leaf then cut the other side. By doing this if your angle isn't a perfect division of 360 degrees you can cut the last piece to suit. Start putting them together with the numbers going 1,3,5,7 on one side and 2,4,6,8 and so on the other side. By doing this your veneer will never be more than 2 leaves apart keeping the grain matching perfectly

 

[markturner]

Thanks for the advice, very helpful!

 

[Mr T]

Hi Mark

I would use cascamite or a similar creep free adhesive when there are a lot of joints. If you're doing it in rosewood you can darken it with pigments, a few van dyke crystals in the mixing water works well.

Chris