wood veneers

[steamboat]

Hello all.
Am I missing something or is wood veneer incredibly expensive.
I am after a little bit of crown cut cherry to cover a couple of loud speakers I am making, I have looked around and the cost would equate to ft3 in the £1000 where as I can get cheery at around £40 for a ft3, as well as that veneered sheet material can be gotten fairly cheaply. If veneers is actually this expensive why is so much made with it and not solid wood?

 

[JakeS]

If veneers is actually this expensive why is so much made with it and not solid wood?

Regardless of whether veneers are particularly expensive or not, I believe the big advantage is that if you glue them down to a stable substrate like plywood or MDF, you get all the attractiveness of real wood but none of the shrinkage/expansion problems.

It'll be more expensive than a solid slab of wood the same volume for two reasons. One because more work had to be done to it to create it, and two because every time a cut is made an amount of wood is removed as sawdust and effectively wasted. To make a slab you only have to make one or two cuts, and finish with the majority of the wood you started with; to make the same volume of veneer you have to make twenty or thirty cuts, which may mean starting with several times as much wood!

 

[deserter]

Another reason for the expense is quality, when trees are felled the best quality trees go to veneer production before the rest of the grades are even considered.


~Nil carborundum illegitemi~

 

[steamboat]

Thanks for the replys. I guest that the labour and use of the equipment was the part of the reason but can that really account for the huge difference in price, and also it doesn't explain how I can get MDF veneered sheets for little more than plain MDF. I will probably end up cutting the veneers myself as it will be loads cheaper but I wanted to check it wasn't just me.

 

[JakeS]

doesn't explain how I can get MDF veneered sheets for little more than plain MDF

Personally I've not noticed this - looking at the handily-online prices of SL Hardwoods, for example, 19mm Ash-veneered MDF is around twice as expensive as 18mm MRMDF... and Ash is one of the cheaper hardwoods!

If there is some cheap veneered MDF around, my guess would be that they rotary-cut the wood for it in the same way they get wood for plywood, which - I'm guessing - is probably much more efficient in terms of wastage but less suitable for selling as sheets as they'd curl...

Have a look at this, for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MTf__cU74g

 

[JonnyD]

I don't think veneer is particularly expensive as a material. I havent bought any cherry for a while but have just bought some black walnut which should be a similar price and that was £4 per square metre or about 40p per square foot.

Cheers

Jon

 

[steamboat]

where did you get the veneer from?

 

[JonnyD]

I usually use capital crispin veneer

http://www.capitalcrispin.com/

Cheers

Jon

 

[RogerS]

I can recommend this guy

http://www.originalmarquetry.co.uk/

Bristol based

 

[Grahamshed]

You cannot really argue about 40p per square foot, but I have never seen it at that price. I will have to look into those links.