Paul M.
I didn't want to hijack the other hide glue thread, so I'll start my own.

I'm planning on veneering a mahognay desktop that will probably see some abuse. So I don't want to use the typical 1/40" veneer available on the market. I want something thicker.

I'm planning on ripping some good quality Santos or Honduran Mahogany to 3/16" and then planing smooth to about 1/8" to veneer down to a baltic birch substrate. Good quality mahogany is waaaayyy too expensive (over $12 per board foot here in San Diego!) to consider building the desktop out of solid wood, hence this thick veneering approach.

My plan (based upon absolutely no experience) is to coat the substrate and the veneer both in hot hide glue to put a "sizing" on both surfaces and let it cool. Then spray a bit of water on the substrate, lay the thick veneer down on top, and use a hot iron to melt the glue together to "hammer" the veneer down to the substrate.

I doubt that I could ever get large thick veneer onto a large substrate without the hide glue cooling to the point where it doesn't need to be reheated to get it to stick anyways.

Am I crazy to try this? Would a urea/formaldahyde glue or slow set epoxy with a vacuum bag be a better approach? If anyone here has worked with thick veneers before on a large scale, I would like to hear from you. I generally work solid wood and smaller scale, so I'm way out of my league.

Thanks,
-- Paul