Ever wanted to make your own veneer? Well I’m gonna show you how! Its really not that hard and the benefits are worth the extra effort. Making your own veneer is a great way to conserve high quality material. If you have a one-of-a-kind piece of figured wood, why not slice it up and use it in three or four projects instead of just one? So fire up the bandsaw cause we’re cutting our own veneer!
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21 Responses to “16- Wish You Veneer”
nice job Marc, you make it look all too easy. A quick question – I know from past episodes that you usually wait about 1/2 hour before scraping off the squeeze out when gluing up your panels, but do you scrape immediately with the veneer? It seems as though you’d want to get the other piece of tape on right away to seal up the joint, right?
You know I can’t help thinking about your bunny-bucket-laptop-teleprompter while watching the podcast now…
Was that a brad nailer I saw you using?! Something I thought I’d never see! :)
Thanks for showing the fence construction – shop made jigs / fences seem like the way to go and you made the process very straight forward.
Great info..
I just started using a vacuum press for veneering and it is pretty exciting to be able glue up large pieces. Do you use a vac press? There are some great websites on how to build your own system for a modest price.
Anyway great show and I look forward to seeing more..
R
Hey mike. I do scrape immediately with the veneer. Reason being that I am dealing with the glue side of the veneer at that point. So if glue gets embedded in the grain its really no big deal. And the second piece of tape could be considered overkill, but I do it so that the joint has no chance of opening up and I can then move the piece around. I need a more elegant solution than the bunny bucket. lol
Skee- Haha. Indeed that was my brad nailer. You’ll see it extensively when I do the assembly table project. :)
Ron- I do have a vacuum press. My current bag is a 4′x4′. I need something bigger for the current project so I will be making a new bag. I am considering making this a podcast as well.
This is the first video that I watched and am very iompressed. Good job, and thank you.
now back to the others
On the topic of drift angles; is there any guarantee that the dift angle will remain the same for a blade if lets say, you have a 1/2 blade for re-sawing, set up the angle, then switch to a 1/4 for some curved cuts, then back to the 1/2 for re-sawing, will the drift angle still be the same for that 1/2 blade or do you have to always check the drift angle when the blade has been removed?
Its very likely that the same blade placed back onto the same saw will have the same drift angle. But due to the fact that the blade might wind up on a different part of the tire, there could be a slight difference. But in most cases, I would say the drift angle will be the same.
If you don’t have a drum sander, couldn’t you run the 1/8 piece off the bandsaw through the planer to smooth/flatten the bandsawn side? Or sand by hand? What do you think?
Its always a little scary planing really thin pieces of wood. Consult your owners manual to see what they recommend as the thinnest stock you should run through. From my experience, most planers will recommend against running stock that thin. And not to mention, when you do run stock that thin, its very easy for the impact of the blades to destroy the piece of veneer.
One option would be to create a sled. you can double stick tape a piece of veneer to a 3/4″ piece of plywood, and run that through the planer. But be cautious. If the veneer comes loose, you can have a real problem. So be sure to secure it well.
The sled method is probably what I would do if I didnt have a drum sander.
speaking of the sled, instead of double stick tape, rip a sheet of melamine to the width of the planer bed, and a few inches longer. screw on a lip under the sled so the rollers wont suck the sled in and you got yourself a planer sled. but many a times you hear *CRACK SLIT TICK CRACK* and then you hear your splines being sucked up into the the pipes.
Even a 3/16″ is scary. My very last piece of flame koa exploded in my planer. It was a headstock over-lay on a guitar I was building.
Eep!!! On to plan B!!!
I got it done but still..should have sanded it.
gotta love exploding wood
Love the webisode and the Floyd reference.
Always entertaining and informative.
Episode 16 “Wish You Veneer” is absolutely great and very timely. You have taken the mystery out of cutting veneer for me. Now, to finish it off, I am looking forward to gluing the veneer to the substrate.
Great episode, Marc.
Danke das was ich hab gesen ist super,grüß von Zoran aus Deutschland.
I have not tried any veneering projects yet – though it is certainly on the list. I’ve done enough re-sawing to feel confident in my skills there including tuning my band saw. Any reason I should go with store bought over my own re-sawn veneer for a first project or two?
Thanks for all the tips.
Personally, I find home-sawn veneer easier to work with. Its much more forgiving in clamping and gluing sheets together. Obviously it acts more like solid wood so it doesn’t tear as easily or curl when it gets a little glue on it. Clamping pressure doesn’t have to be as perfect either. So I would definitely say home sawn veneer is the way to start if you have the right tools.
It sounds great to be able to make your own veneer. I hope one day to make my own veneer, there are some beautiful woods out there that i have seen, but not veneers (at least in my area).
Hi Mark
Nice episode, very interresting !
I’d like to know what is the “Blue Tape” you use ?
We don’t have such tape in France.
Is this “paper base” tape, or is it a sort of synthetic ?
Hi Ludovic. Here’s the stuff I use: http://www.amazon.com/ScotchBl.....B000BQWI9O
Thanks Marc !
As I can see on 3M website, it’s a “paper” tape.
We have the same kind of tape in France, but it’s yellow. It’s formely known as “painter’s tape” or “masking tape” :)