I have a bunch of 1/16 walnut veneer about a foot wide that I want to use on several boxes. Most of the veneer has serious warps and bubbles that I need to flatten somehow so that I can put them on plywood substrates. I tried spraying them with a commercial flattener, but it simply didn’t work. Can anyone tell me some better method to try?
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There are a number of different ways to apply veneer. I have had pretty good results with just applying the glue to both sides (usually with a roller) and applying flat platens with weights or clamps. Some folks who do a lot of veneering use vacuum pumps. In any case, I think most veneer, once wet with the glue and pressed down will flatten out. There are, of course, exceptions.
Have you done it with veneer with bubble warps up to 1/4 inch high? That is what I am trying to deal with. I have since made some platens that I can use if the process is likely to work. Thank you for replying.
Yes, the Bubinga boards I had were highly figured waterfall Bubinga, and had many bubbles all over the place; I thought it was going to be a hopeless exercise. However, really wetting the wood and then isolating it from the plywood platens with saran wrap really helped in the effort(the edges were left exposed to the air. I think the key was the what amounted to probably several hundred pounds of pressure from the cement blocks used to weigh the whole thing down- the whole sandwich was left on my basement floor for safety due to the weight involved and it did take 3-4 days or so to get it mostly dry and flat. I found out that I needed to then isolate the individual boards, apply weight again- w/o saran wrap to get them fully dried and ready for glue up. Then everything worked, only had a couple of areas near the ends that tried to return to being warped/bubbled- but I just cut those ends off and the rest was fine. Good luck in your efforts.
I had success by just thoroughly wetting both side of the thick veneer I had (Bubinga) and placing them with saran wrap on the tops and bottoms, but left the edges open to the air, and then placed them between two 3/4" thick sections of ply wood and then placed them on my bench and weighted down the the sandwich with several concrete blocks, and left tit that way for 3-4 days. The result was all most 100% dry but perfectly flattened Bubinga. My wood strips were 1/16 inch thick plus by 12" wide x 3-4 feet long. I would think this should work for Walnut as well. Regards, MIke.
I have successfully glued down very wavy exotic veneers using a vacuum press, but I do not know if that is your method. What glue are you going to use? Are you going to veneer both sides so that there is no warp in the panel? I generally use either Titebond Original or Titebond 3. You should have good results simply using plattens on each side with even clamping pressure if you are not using a vacuum. A cheaper way to go than using the commercial flattening liquids is to mix your own using glycerin and water. It can take many days to get an uncooperative veneer flat, you need to wet the veneer, place it between paper, weight it down and repeat every 24 hours until you are happy.
I've had the same challenge with thick wavy rosewood and cocobolo veneers. What worked for me was to really (really) soak and apply pressure. It'll take multiple rounds--for me as many as five or six--with thick stubborn veneer. The first few times I was impatient and went only a round or two plus didn't wet enough. Yeah make your own flattening liquid so you won't be stingy. And then glue up with vacuum press if at all possible. It is daunting to duplicate the pressure of a vacuum press with clamps and platens.
Thank you Pali and njmresearch and user210490. Your advice convinced me that I was too impatient and didn't get the veneer really soaked to begin with. I'm going to give it another try using your collective advices.
Great, go for it! Patience and really wetting the veneer is essential when doing this. If you rush the process, as you and we all have found, the results are terrible. That's what is so great about these FW forums, we all get the combined wisdom from others gleaned from their failures before we go headlong into our own!