Ruhlmann Veneering

Re: Ruhlmann Veneering

Ellis Walentine

The master of this kind of work is Frank Pollaro. Making Ruhlmann pieces is where he began his amazing career. I've asked him to stop by and hold forth for us. We'll see if he can spare the time.

For a real feast, check out his website...

Pollaro.com

Ellis

Um

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

You want fries with that?

Re: Ruhlmann Veneering

CJ in MPLS

Funny you should mention Mr. Pollaro. I was desperately trying to blow up all of the photos on his website to gain some insight into how those things were put together.

Doing a GIS on the list of designers whose work he has recreated is an eye opening and humbling experience.

CJ

Re: Ruhlmann Veneering

Ellis Walentine

Frank got back to me and said he'd get around to answering the question soon.

He and I met through Frank Klausz, who was a strong mentor to Frank in his early days. When he was in the veneer business, he was an esteemed WoodCentral advertiser. He's certainly hit the big time.

Ellis

Re: Ruhlmann Veneering

Keith L Newton

CJ, I've done some veneering where I used diamonds with 60º and 120º angles that when three were taped together to form a hex with all having their grain running different, those were assembled to make that shaded stack of boxes, Ive forgotten the term though. That was about 30 years ago. What I did was rip about a 1" thick stack of veneer to the same width using a TS sled with the stack captured between weighted scrap MDF to hold all flat.

Then I attached a fence onto the sled at 60º to cut the angles. I placed a stop to index for the length so all the sides came out the same length, then cut whole stacks again. With a good sharp new fine tooth ATB blade, and zero clearance under it all, you couldn't ask for a better cut on all the parts.

As for glue-up, I just tape the parts together laying on top of a 1/4" sheet of MDF a little larger that the panel and veneers to be glued. I then place a thin plastic sheet on top and then the actual platen that will be used on top and flip it over. It should now be ready to glue-up. Since that appears to have some curve, I normally use plastic laminate for the platen. Rather than putting glue on this fragile scrim of parts and lifting it onto the core, I leave it laying then place the substrate on top of it after all the epoxy has been spread. Since this appears to be a pair of doors, I would make them as one and cut it in half afterwards.

As for the stringing, I would do that after gluing the veneer. I can't tell exactly what it is in the photo, but clamping a flexible straight edge to guide some sort of fine hand saw could work. I don't know if it's pixels or dots, but if they are a fine line of dots, back in my leather days, I had a tool with a wheel that could be rolled along to mark centers for even hole spacing for stitching. I'm sure Tandy Leather would still sell those to index for even spacing. You'll need to practice something on scraps before going at the doors and ends.

Re: Ruhlmann Veneering

CJ in MPLS

Thanks much!

CJ