TV Cabinet in English Walnut - NOW FINISHED!

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BradNaylor":wy0jb34u said:
It keeps life interesting, Matt.

MDF alcove units pay the bills, though!

:lol:

Brad


PS - the finish is Morrells gloss (90%) AC lacquer.

You have to be very confident to go for the full shine mate. That veneering must have been very crisp!
Have a good break mate.
 
Care to share any of those veneering tips? I could do with a few pointers.

Great jobs though :)
 
More importantly the client and his wife were absolutely delighted with it when I delivered and installed it today.

And well they might be; looks great, v impressed.
T
 
Oh yes, excellent work Brad. I, like you have just tried veneering on the Beech table I made and have to say I am looking forward to doing some more. I too underestimated just how much veneer it takes if you are aiming for a pattern. I did buy a vacuum press and am happy with it for the price I paid. Very nice finish on your cabinet too mate, bet your proud as punch. :D
 
Russ":1nsog4ng said:
Is she going to pay you from her biscuit tin :D

Hi Russ,

Biscuit tins don't pay any interest and the financial Institutions don't pay much more. I converted my biscuit tin into a 'gold safe'. We ain't all old-fashioned yah know!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

That's pretty good price for the 'Queen' of English timbers Brad. Nice work and I should hope that the client was indeed happy.

Have a good one.
John
:ho2
 
Fabulous! And always nice to learn some new skills when taking on something like this. How did you find the veneering? Any tips you can pass on to us amateurs?
 
RogerM":1pxs4vuo said:
How did you find the veneering? Any tips you can pass on to us amateurs?

What I learned was this;

Number each leaf of burr veneer as they come out of the pack so that you can use them sequentially- the pattern changes slighty between the first leaf and the last.

Burr veneer arrives all 'bumpy' and has to be flattened before use. This done by wetting it slightly all over with water from one of those houseplant spray bottles and clamping two sheets at a time between pieces of lining paper. I made simple 'presses' for this process from pieces of 25mm MDF and G-clamps.

The most important tools required are a very sharp scalpel and a very heavy metal straight-edge. A light one will move around as you cut along it with the scalpel. DAMHIK!

For book-matching the burr veneer cut a template of the size panel you need from 6mm MDF and place it on the first sheet of veneer so that it covers the most attractive part of the pattern. A template of perspex or even glass would make this easier as you could see the pattern through it. Carefully cut the veneer to the exact size of your template.

Use this first piece of veneer to mark out the other pieces of burr required for that lay-out. By flipping it over as appropriate you can line up the pattern perfectly with the next leaf and get that classic bookmatched effect. Cut each leaf with the straight edge and scalpel.

Working from the reverse side stick the leaves together with masking tape. Then put the semi-completed lay-out back between a couple of sheets of MDF to prevent it drying out and going all 'bumpy' again.

For the cross-banding you need a lot of very straight grained veneer. My main mistake with this job was not ordering enough - consequently I was unable to match up the cross-banding from one door to the next.

Cut the veneer across the grain in strips a little wider than the finished size. Square up the ends of each strip. Working from the reverse side tape together the individual short strips into several long ones, again using masking tape.

Then turn your long strips over and tape the joins with veneer tape - a very thin paper tape that comes pre-gummed but which you have to lick to moisten the gum - like old envelopes. Then trim the edges of your long strips to the finished size with the straight-edge and scalpel.

We are then ready to apply the cross-banding to the bookmatched burr panels. Working again from the reverse side fasten the strips in place using masking tape. Masking tape at this stage is very forgiving and allows you undo any mistakes. Overlap the strips at each corner - do not attempt to pre-cut your mitres!

The mitres at each corner are cut simply by placing the straight edge between the corner of the burr panel and the point at the extremity where the two pieces of crossbanding overlap. Cut along this line carefully with the scalpel through both pieces of cross band veneer from the outside towards the inside. This point is important as if you cut the other way it is almost inevitable that you will lose a bit of veneer at the point of the corner. DAMHIK (again!) If you nick the corner of the burr panel with the scalpel it doesn't matter as this is the reverse side.

Flip the lay-put over and apply veneer tape to all the joins. Then flip it over again and remove the masking tape. Then put the whole thing between sheets of MDF again to keep it flat and move onto the next lay-out.

When all the lay-outs are complete we need to make up balancers for the reverse sides of all our veneered panels. These are simply made from leaves of a matching but cheaper and less decorative veneer. I used American Black Walnut for the balancers on this job.

The cores of each panel on this job were MDF with walnut lippings which I had prepared earlier.

Actually glueing up is pretty straightforward. I used a 3 platten traditional screw type veneer press and One-Shot glue. Others prefer bag presses and/or PVA.

As you can see, I learned a lot from this process and I am glad to have written it down before I forgot!

Cheers
Brad
 
Excellent piece...very crisp. As you say, if alcove units pay the bills, it must be good to something like this for a bit of folding for beer n'skittles :lol: - Rob
 
Excellent work Brad. Your list of tips is very welcome as I've never done any veneering but was planning to do some soon.

Ed
 
woodbloke":1xvxsyiy said:
Excellent piece...very crisp. As you say, if alcove units pay the bills, it must be good to something like this for a bit of folding for beer n'skittles :lol: - Rob

In retrospect Rob, I undercharged at £1750. If I were to do it again I'd want at least £2500, if not £3000.

There is over £500 of materials involved and a good two weeks work.

Alcove units are more profitable and I can do them with my eyes shut!
 
Very good Brad.
The thought of the customer not being happing with the finish of a piece fills me with fear! Very impressive that you were willing and able to fix it for him!
How do you find the Morrells AC lacquer to spray?
Cheers
Gidon
 
BradNaylor":2uvykm4e said:
woodbloke":2uvykm4e said:
Excellent piece...very crisp. As you say, if alcove units pay the bills, it must be good to something like this for a bit of folding for beer n'skittles :lol: - Rob

In retrospect Rob, I undercharged at £1750. If I were to do it again I'd want at least £2500, if not £3000.

There is over £500 of materials involved and a good two weeks work.

Alcove units are more profitable and I can do them with my eyes shut!
I'm no expert on charging for stuff Brad, but if you charged £1750 for it...someone got a bargin. I would have thought at least £2.5K min - Rob
 
BradNaylor":ofbus6ag said:
RogerM":ofbus6ag said:
How did you find the veneering? Any tips you can pass on to us amateurs?

What I learned was this; ............................

Cheers
Brad

Thanks Brad. Much appreciated.
 
woodbloke":2zk89w4f said:
BradNaylor":2zk89w4f said:
woodbloke":2zk89w4f said:
Excellent piece...very crisp. As you say, if alcove units pay the bills, it must be good to something like this for a bit of folding for beer n'skittles :lol: - Rob

In retrospect Rob, I undercharged at £1750. If I were to do it again I'd want at least £2500, if not £3000.

There is over £500 of materials involved and a good two weeks work.

Alcove units are more profitable and I can do them with my eyes shut!
I'm no expert on charging for stuff Brad, but if you charged £1750 for it...someone got a bargin. I would have thought at least £2.5K min - Rob


I agree with Rob, they got a bargain but then in your shoes, I'd probably have done the same, with a one off it's difficult to judge just how long things are going to take especially if it's using techniques for the first time or techniques that don't get used very often. And then there's the question of what the client/market will bare for a bespoke piece of work, if you'd said £3000 they might well have decided to make do with something cheaper and then you'd not have had the fun of doing something different. I find I'm constantly charging on the thin side of profit....do a lot of work for charity, just don't like to speak about it...sob!
Then again, it's the novel one off pieces that provide the interest and stop me going mad between kitchens and built in unitzzzzz
I think it's great and there's more to life than profit; you have our admiration and respect even if it won't pay for cream on top of the bills.
T
 

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