Any Veneer Junkies here?

Re: Any Veneer Junkies here?

Matt Williams Marysville, WA

>My wife has accused me of being an addict. I have been forbidden to buy anymore and I am supposed to sell some. She just doesn't understand the need to accumulate treasures against the day that I will have the perfect project for it! :) I got 800 sf of mahogany for $100. I might not use it all up but I certainly won't run out!

fiddle back maple

birds eye maple

curly maple

walnut

curly walnut

mytle burl

wenge

maple burl

cherry

mahogany

Maple and some others that I don't remember.

Sheeesh, sounds worse than collecting planes

Dale Stansbery

>

Re: Any Veneer Junkies here?

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Funny...though it's not veneer, LOML has the same reaction to all the scraps of wood I've piled up. She's a potter and photographer and just doesn't understand that, unlike clay or unexposed film, each piece of wood is uniquely itself and MUST be gathered and hoarded.

Re: Any Veneer Junkies here?

Dirk Wright

>Holy Crap! 800 sqft of real mahogany for 100 bucks!? Incredible!

I'm getting some fiddleback English Sycamore today. I've also got some Bigleaf Maple and Birdseye Maple stashed away. I'm just complete addicted to veneer!

Veneer is made from the absolutely best logs, so it is extremely hard for me to resist all that flawless wood. Plus, it's more eco-friendly to use veneer instead of solid wood.

I've been very interested in using hide/bone glue for veneer, since you don't need a veneer press that way, only a J roller. I tried this method out on 4 bookmatched approx. 8x10" pieces of lacewood. Seemed to work just fine. I even had to repair a little piece, which also was fast and easy with bone glue. I am a little concerned about the ethics of using bone glue, but I don't really have an alternative that is nearly as easy to use.

Re: Any Veneer Junkies here?

Andrew Alcazar in Charlotte, NC

>I tend to collect myself... some species are near impossible to come by any other way. I probably have a few thousand sqf. I keep mine in an old blueprint case I took out of an old chemical plant. Perfect storage for stuff that is less than 4' long... I find Ebay to be the best source. You can get amazing deals. I bought 200 sqf of Ceylon Satinwood for about $50.. it needs flattened before use, and it is short (30"), but high end veneer places want $4 a foot.

On the inlay banding... I've had zero success with that stuff. Usually you end up a few inches short with whatever specialty stock you have in hand, or it cracks apart in storage. I make my own with scrap exotics, but I mostly like a nice simple holly or ebony line.

- Oh yeah.. I buy mahogany and straight grained maple whenever its available so I'll always have an appropriate counter veneer.. never pay more than 20 cents a foot for either.

Re: Any Veneer Junkies here?

Dirk Wright

>I notice that most of the commercial furniture that I see does not have counter veneer. They just put finish (laquer, etc) on the back side to seal it up. I can't imagine a thin little piece of veneer warping a 3/4" piece of MDF. On thin cores, yeah, I can see the need, but thick ones I would think should be fine with a sealer finish like shellac. Once I had a scrap of bubinga and used contact cement to adhere it to 1/8" hardboard. It sure did warp like crazy, but I put a sealer coat of shellac on the back of the hardboard and it was fine.

I find it interesting that Jelink, a decorative cork tile manufacturer, recommends water based contact cement for adhereing their cork tile. This includes floor tile and wall tile adhered to either drywall, plywood, etc. Contact cement is considered taboo in veneering wood. Cork is just bark, and moves around a bit with seasonal changes. I've started using bone glue for wood veneer. Seems to work good.

Re: Any Veneer Junkies here?

Andrew Alcazar in Charlotte, NC

>You're probably correct about warping associated with MDF.. I usually put counter veneers on solid wood, where warpage matters like drawer faces. I have argued in this forum that alot of warpage rules that we take into account don't make alot of sense given modern vapor barrier finishes and air conditioned homes. I live in Charlotte,NC which swings from about 100% relative humidity in August to around 70% in the drier parts of winter. My house on the other hand is about a constant 80% to 75%. Not much chance of movement once a piece has acclimated to the house. Now if you use an oil finish in an unheated house then it matters, but not anymore. I would even argue that this applies to joinery as well (modern glues) but that won't make me any friends here. Most of what I do in the shop: dovetails, counter veneers, or hand tools in general are because I want to not because it is "right"

On glues... I pretty much only use resin glues (Unibond 800) in a vacuum press. I've had bubble problems with bone glue... I don't like contact cement.. my lungs don't react well

- Andrew