Veneering Tips

[meb46]

Hello all,

I am about 25% of the way trhough applying veneer to some large cabinets and I have noticed a couple of defects.

The cabinets are MDT with curved Plywood sides. On the edges of the plywood where the veneer is applied to, it seems to dry and seal un-evenly to the plywood cut end. i.e. you can see faint lines of the individual ply's on the veneer. The veneer is 0.3mm Maple, and these can be sanded away but i am concerned I am going to sand through the veneer. The application onto the flat MDF is really good, but then the plywood is not perfect. I am using the iron on veneer method with pretty good success except for this issue.

It is possible to seal the ends of the plywood before veneering to stop this effect? Before application the ends are sanded and filled etc and the imperfections that appear after veneering are not seen pre-veneering.

Anyone with some suggestions or advice? Can I paint on an undercoat/sealer first, and then still adhere the venner to the sealer? Will standard white glue work for this?

Thanks

[rdrowley]

Hello all,

I am about 25% of the way trhough applying veneer to some large cabinets and I have noticed a couple of defects.

The cabinets are MDT with curved Plywood sides. On the edges of the plywood where the veneer is applied to, it seems to dry and seal un-evenly to the plywood cut end. i.e. you can see faint lines of the individual ply's on the veneer. The veneer is 0.3mm Maple, and these can be sanded away but i am concerned I am going to sand through the veneer. The application onto the flat MDF is really good, but then the plywood is not perfect. I am using the iron on veneer method with pretty good success except for this issue.

It is possible to seal the ends of the plywood before veneering to stop this effect? Before application the ends are sanded and filled etc and the imperfections that appear after veneering are not seen pre-veneering.

Anyone with some suggestions or advice? Can I paint on an undercoat/sealer first, and then still adhere the venner to the sealer? Will standard white glue work for this?

Thanks

You can seal the edges before you apply the veneer, but it shouldn't behave as you are describing if you have sanded and filled the edges. Do be very careful sanding out imperfections, 0.3mm isn't that much to an electric sander...

What did you use to fill the edges and the gaps that naturally appear between the layers? I would suggest bondo if that isn't what you used.

One method that has been mentioned several time to seal end grain on MDF is to mix 50% wood glue and water and apply with a "J" roller. This might benefit you here.

I'm hoping you're going to post pictures, it sound like it'll look nice if you have curved sides.

[meb46]

Thanks for your notes...

I had used a pretty generic wood filler on the sides, but in most cases there is very little used. The edges have been bonded properly and then been trimmed off with a Router Edge Trimmer... so most cases its just flush cut ply-wood.

I think I will try the Wood Glue/Water mix on the next few sides and see it that improves it. It is very fine veneer, so i will tread carefully with the sanding

Will post some pictures in the coming days to show the effect.

Cheers

[PMazz]

Anything water-based will exacerbate the problem. The end grained veneers in the ply will always absorb moisture much faster than the cross grained layers and this is what you're seeing. Something like Bondo would probably work better but in the long term you may always get this type of telegraphing. I would apply backer sheet (phenolic) to the whole surface first, then veneer.

[zephyrtear]

Would anyone know how to describe how cokeefe made this finish?



He uses two veneers. My doubt is if he simply layers one veneer on top of the other.

I plan on doing something similar but would want it flush and not layered. Does anyone know how to do this. Maybe give some pointers if possible?

[owdi]

My guess is he stacked a small piece of dark veneer over a larger piece of light veneer, covered that with a template, then sliced it with a razor.