Hi,
With the central heating boiler now repaired I'm feeling much happier in fact someone has turned off the terrible weather for a short while as the sun is shining; WOW!!
I was keen to see how the cabinet sides had turned out after veneering so managed to get into the workshop yesterday morning to play around.
Just one tiny problem; I knew I had caught one corner of the veneer whilst I was removing the excess water with a dry cloth but thought it had pressed back into position OK; it's only the size of a small splinter but now it is still loose and will be re-glued later. Overall though the veneering of both sides is perfect; I'm particularly pleased with the joints which have closed tightly.
Erring on the side of caution I allowed too much overhang whilst cutting the veneer and this proved to be a mistake as extra care was needed during lay-up and also it presented problems as I ran the router round to bring it flush now the glue had set.
Too much overhang.
The router was fitted with a bearing guided flush cutting straight bit and cut depth carefully adjusted. The cabinet was clamped securely to the bench and the router run round removing the overhanging veneer; this was followed by careful sanding using 240g abrasive paper backed by a wooden block; the abrasive paper was worked towards the cabinet all the time in order to avoid break-out of the fragile veneer.
Cabinet securely clamped to bench.
The veneering tape proved obstinate as I tried to remove it using a cabinet scraper in fact it put up a fight and I was worried about damaging the cabinet if I applied too much pressure so I wetted the tape and suddenly it came away very easily with the cabinet scraper; with the tape removed the area was cleaned with a wetted rag to remove any tape adhesive and the pictures show the perfect joints but they are still damp from the wetting.
So far so good; both side panels now veneered with excellent joints and nicely aligned grain pattern. I've never used this type of veneer before but it has a very course grain similar to oak so it's unlikely it will ever flat down dead smooth in fact whilst I tried to remove the tape some of the tape was embedded deep into the grain but fortunately proved easy enough to remove once wetted.
Perfect joints; can you spot them?
I've never previously used proper veneering tape but I can now say it is worth buying; it is strong with a powerful adhesive activated by wetting; it is also very thin. Previously I've used 2" wide gummed parcel paper tape but this always left signs of where it had been attached.
I'm learning all the time; veneering both cabinet sides I found easy enough having done this previously but now I need to find a way of veneering using Burr Walnut which I've never attempted although I know it to be very difficult even on flat straight surfaces; I need to veneer around a curve and there are also two large openings to the front of the cabinet. The Burr is badly buckled and it is also fragile and very brittle. I need to proceed with a lot of caution and patience whilst finding solutions to a number of problems such as cutting to size and bending the Burr around the curve without destroying the Burr; will the joints align and do I veneer over the openings trimming later or trim to size before veneering. If it was easy I wouldn't have bothered. I've a number of ideas to try out but I'm on my own; I've surfed the web and looked at "You Tube" but am unable to find any reference or information as to how to apply Burr around a curve using the hammer and hide glue method. Veneer presses; cauls and vacuum bags are used but not the hammer; this is going to be an interesting challenge for me but if I succeed it will lead to even better things. I regard each of my projects as a stepping stone allowing me to gain knowledge and experience.
Since adding the notes above I've been in the workshop and can now add pictures of the Burr Walnut veneer shown below. This burr veneer is stunning and I hope I'm up to working with it.
Kind regards, Col.
Burr Walnut veneer as bought.
With the central heating boiler now repaired I'm feeling much happier in fact someone has turned off the terrible weather for a short while as the sun is shining; WOW!!
I was keen to see how the cabinet sides had turned out after veneering so managed to get into the workshop yesterday morning to play around.
Just one tiny problem; I knew I had caught one corner of the veneer whilst I was removing the excess water with a dry cloth but thought it had pressed back into position OK; it's only the size of a small splinter but now it is still loose and will be re-glued later. Overall though the veneering of both sides is perfect; I'm particularly pleased with the joints which have closed tightly.
Erring on the side of caution I allowed too much overhang whilst cutting the veneer and this proved to be a mistake as extra care was needed during lay-up and also it presented problems as I ran the router round to bring it flush now the glue had set.
Too much overhang.
The router was fitted with a bearing guided flush cutting straight bit and cut depth carefully adjusted. The cabinet was clamped securely to the bench and the router run round removing the overhanging veneer; this was followed by careful sanding using 240g abrasive paper backed by a wooden block; the abrasive paper was worked towards the cabinet all the time in order to avoid break-out of the fragile veneer.
Cabinet securely clamped to bench.
The veneering tape proved obstinate as I tried to remove it using a cabinet scraper in fact it put up a fight and I was worried about damaging the cabinet if I applied too much pressure so I wetted the tape and suddenly it came away very easily with the cabinet scraper; with the tape removed the area was cleaned with a wetted rag to remove any tape adhesive and the pictures show the perfect joints but they are still damp from the wetting.
So far so good; both side panels now veneered with excellent joints and nicely aligned grain pattern. I've never used this type of veneer before but it has a very course grain similar to oak so it's unlikely it will ever flat down dead smooth in fact whilst I tried to remove the tape some of the tape was embedded deep into the grain but fortunately proved easy enough to remove once wetted.
Perfect joints; can you spot them?
I've never previously used proper veneering tape but I can now say it is worth buying; it is strong with a powerful adhesive activated by wetting; it is also very thin. Previously I've used 2" wide gummed parcel paper tape but this always left signs of where it had been attached.
I'm learning all the time; veneering both cabinet sides I found easy enough having done this previously but now I need to find a way of veneering using Burr Walnut which I've never attempted although I know it to be very difficult even on flat straight surfaces; I need to veneer around a curve and there are also two large openings to the front of the cabinet. The Burr is badly buckled and it is also fragile and very brittle. I need to proceed with a lot of caution and patience whilst finding solutions to a number of problems such as cutting to size and bending the Burr around the curve without destroying the Burr; will the joints align and do I veneer over the openings trimming later or trim to size before veneering. If it was easy I wouldn't have bothered. I've a number of ideas to try out but I'm on my own; I've surfed the web and looked at "You Tube" but am unable to find any reference or information as to how to apply Burr around a curve using the hammer and hide glue method. Veneer presses; cauls and vacuum bags are used but not the hammer; this is going to be an interesting challenge for me but if I succeed it will lead to even better things. I regard each of my projects as a stepping stone allowing me to gain knowledge and experience.
Since adding the notes above I've been in the workshop and can now add pictures of the Burr Walnut veneer shown below. This burr veneer is stunning and I hope I'm up to working with it.
Kind regards, Col.
Burr Walnut veneer as bought.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
