wood finish

Plywood is OK if it has a nice face (usually sliced) veneer. However it is important when you buy it to go throug the stock to ensure matching face veneer sheets. A merchant will simply give you the sheets you ask for in number terms, so you could get say 6 sheets with 3 or more differing faces if you wee unlucky. Despite the travelling, if I can, I prefer to visit the merchant and select matching sheets.

Solid timber is in some ways a bit easier, especially if you know about 'book matching' etc and can resaw it, or get it resawn. Again buy enough to do the job with some spare. Each tree is a bit different and will give a different colour or texture. There are a few oddities such as large differences in colour between heartwood and sapwood like rosewood (dark brown to white) and WR Cedar but sometimes these can be used to enhance symmetry or visually to tease the eye in a pleasant way.

 

How can I glue veener on plywood?

 

Not too hard to do. Either use a vacuum bag with a flat sheet of say 25mm MDF under the ply or use effectively a press. The latter requires at least a couple of thick say 18-25mm sheets MDF and a lot of weights (more sheets or literally lead, steel, anything you can lay your hands on) spread as evenly as possible on eht upper sheet. The ply and face veneer is sandwiched between the sheets.

Best to put thin polythene sheet over the veneer to stop stick out. For glue any decent stuff, epoxy, urea formaldehyde, resourcinol etc. Be very very careful with glue quantity as it easily bleeds through the pores of the grain. You will probably need to test, but an accurate glue spreader (you can make one) is important. You need adhesion not saturation. If glueing stuff like Formica (Tm) use epoxy, it is good for c/board case linings etc.

The neat thing with making vener faces is you can actually wet the butting edge, unlike most commercial ply...
To butt veneers you will need a very very sharp knife and a long straight edge. Take your time, don't try and cut full thickness in one go. Also maybe a shooting board. Google these if you are unsure.

I would not recommend glueing less than about 0.6-7mm veneer as thinner tends to get too much surface bleed through of the adhesive. You may require a little trial and error with the exact stock you have.

 

Thanks a lot suki

 

I would be glad if you could find me a video of building hard chined plywood and veener technique boat manufacturing

 

Veneering is not particular to boat building. It is actually more common in furniture making. Google veneering and there will be many hits for videos.

 

It was my top question, How it is done when the two plate of wood slices come together... Did I understand correctly? Two slices come together and one is placed over the other a little bit. And then they both are cut by a sharp knife before gluing onto plywood? Therefore the junction of two slices have a uniform shape?

 

Im not a big fan of stains although i have had some success. Gougeons have done tests on epoxy over stains but I havnt read the results. I personally would not use an oil based stain under the epoxy but i have thought about glassing with a light glass cloth, applying a filler coat of epoxy wet on wet (no filler powder) then sanding that, after washing first of course, and then staining that, then varnish. I think the sanded epoxy would take the stain evenly just fine and all the stain is doing is adding the color you want. I have not tried this yet but will do a sample piece one day, who knows,it might even work.

Steve.

 

Metin, joining veneers is fairly simple. Doing it well takes some practice and experience. There are several techniques (book match, spiling, etc.), depending on what you're trying to accomplish.

The trick with stains are to let them FULLY dry and use only a stain, not a stain/finish product. If it's a plain stain (acrylic or oil) you can expect a 3% -5% lose in peel strength on the substrate, but this isn't enough to get concerned about.

I've had good luck with tinted epoxy used as a sealing coat and colorant.

 

That is the method. You put the two veneers on top of each other with the top one the opposite way to the eventual surface. Place on a firm backing, lay on the long straight edge and knife through. Better to take 20 cuts with a scalpel than one too hard with a Stanley knife....especially in areas of wild grain. After cutting you fold the top veneer (of the two) over and examine the butt join, to ensure it is straight with no gaps. If there are you repeat the process, or tweak with a shooting board. When it is good, tape the veneers together with thin masking tape on the outside face. Note you can flex the joint still so can locally put glue along this joint later. I've always put the glue primarily on the ply first with a very, very small ammount on that veneer butt only, prior to placing it on the ply and pressing it together.

I'm not a fan of staining much either except for very specific details. Once made some fake tortoisehell with epoxy and different colour stains to help a quality furniture restorer replace some bits missing on an C18th piece. Not allowed to use/buy the proper 'shell anymore by law hence a bit of creative license.

Very hard to get even colour (water or spirit) over a big area even spraying, better off as PAR says, putting the colour in the finish over the top.

 

Thank you very much for the replies for all...

Suki if you could prepare or share an existent video of the proccess I realy would be grateful.

 

Not sure if I can find a video but good information on this site.

http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com/Veneering_Index.html

In the UK, I can recommend these guys for purchasing veneer from.

http://www.capitalcrispin.com/about.aspx

 

Thanks a lot