Veneer help

[Scottdimelow]

Hi all, this is my first post to the forum. I've recently decided to take woodworking seriously, I've always done it but lacked tools, space etc.

Just bought a planer/thicknesser which is awesome. And I've got my garage setup as a decent hobby type workshop.

I'm making a set of drawers, and I'd like a veneered oak top. I cut the veneer with the table saw and finished on the p/t. My first attempt went ok, or so I thought. I used the pva and iron technique as I don't have a vac pump. It all seemed to work until a couple of days later the joints opened up.

I was thinking of getting/making a diy vac pump when I do it again, just to be sure I get good clamping pressure.

Could I get decent results using titebond cold press without a pump? my veneer is approx 2mm thick.

TIA

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Dimmaz
I'm not a veneer expert by any means, but I would think that 2mm is very thick indeed for the iron-on technique. Vac presses are excellent, but successful veneering was done for millennia before the VP came along. I would have thought that drawer fronts could be clamped very successfully with cauls and G-clamps.

I made a chest of drawers once with maple drawer fronts. Figured maple on solid maple. I'm afraid I can't remember how I veneered them. VP, probably. I didn't balance them, but it wasn't a problem, and certainly most people, now me included, would recommend balancing. But the COD is still in fine shape, no lifted veneer and not distorted.

More recently, I've started to make an oak coffee table in American Mission style, which means that the legs have QS figure on all faces. Obviously that is not possible in nature, so at least two of the faces have to be veneered. I've done that by veneering the face and clamping it down to the bench, on a layer of cardboard, veneer face down. So far it looks good.

I suggest that you have a few practice sessions.
S

 

[Scottdimelow]

Thanks Steve, hopefully I'll be able to clamp it up. It's actually for the top so I'm worried about getting enough pressure in the center, I may have to buy some deeper clamps. Or maybe a cambered caul would work.

I'm hopefully getting a bandsaw soon, so I'll be sure to check out your setup dvds

 

[Graham Orm]

Curved cauls over a wide span slightly curving away from the veneered surface so that a clamp at each end pulls them straight but exerts pressure to the centre as they straighten rather than just at the ends of the caul laving an un-clamped area in the middle. I use PVA and just clamps, veneer usually less than 1mm thick. All good so far for me, although I haven't tried anything huge yet.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Delighted to hear it !

A top is a bit more problematic because of the increased surface area, and therefore increased required force.

Have you tried using a vacuum clothes storage bag? I haven't yet, but it's on my Explore list. With a good shopvac, which is a lot less powerful than a vac pump, I think that there is a good chance that easy, compliant veneer would glue up well, but something interesting like a burr would not.

For one-offs, could you consider a more avant-garde approach? How about sandwiching it between two layers of kitchen worktop and parking one wheel of your can on it?

Never done it, but I bet it would work.
S

 

[Scottdimelow]

Haha, I'd give that car idea a go. I did think of trying a storage vac bag but didn't think it would create enough pressure, maybe an option to think about.

I did find a guide to making a vacuum pump out of a tyre inflator, seemed simple enough to do.

 

[Graham Orm]

Here ya go. I have thought about this before. It's a fishing gadget for rapid soaking pellets. You put them in the container half filled with water and then pump. It draws the air out of the container...and the pellets and the water is forced into them. I'm sure it can be adapted. There are lots of different versions out there.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-RINGERS-F ... 3cd1f0ab29

Scroll down and read the guff. I picked it at random, but it looks the business.

 

[Scottdimelow]

Looks like a contender, I've been looking at homemade stuff like this. They're basically an inverted bicycle pump aren't they?

 

[marcros]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Practical-Venee ... +veneering is worth getting a copy of.