Replies

1. 
   Andrew | Jun 19, 2002 01:05am | #1

   before you try to hammer veneer your tabletop, practice your technique on some cheap veneer. this way you'll get a feel for it, and you'll also know if the batch of glue you made is good or not. your table top sounds like a difficult first project, as you have to work very quickly with hide glue, and that's a relatively large surface. I have very little experience with hammer veneering, but i do have some experience with urea resin and catalyzed PVA glues and veneer. when veneering MDF make sure to scuff sand the surface, otherwise you might have problems with the veneer bonding. I personally prefer veneering plywood to MDF, and i have found that edging on MDF doesn't hold as well as it does on plywood.

   hope this helps

2. 
   RLMillard | Jun 19, 2002 04:21am | #2

   Jeff

   I find hammer veneering to be easier than any other method I’ve tried. I have no experience with veneering MDF ( I hate that stuff, I use solid wood substrates, or in rare cases baltic birch) but I would say that in order to get a good bond on the edges you will have to apply a thinned down coat of glue to the edges 24 hours before you plan to apply the veneer. I also recommend that you apply veneer to the underside of your top, the glue and or the veneer will exert tremendous pressure. I’d bet your top will warp, if you don’t do this.Along this same line, give yourself enough time to be able to do both sides, one right after the other, because they warp quickly. I slap the glue on one side and quickly hammer it down, not worring about getting it completely stuck and then do the same to the other side. Even then you will get some distortion, but things will settle down in a few hours. The size you are talking about will be no problem. I have hammer veneered sideboard tops which are much larger ( such as the one I have posted in the gallery). I apply glue only to the substrate, and I dampen the face of the veneer just before I lay it into the glue, this keeps it from curling up. As I’m sure you know, the glue will gel before you have time to hammer it down, so you will have to use an iron to reheat the glue. When using the iron, make sure that it is not so hot that it will burn the glue, or turn the water that you dampened the veneer with, to steam. This will cause the veneer to stretch and later split. The best advise I can give to you, is to be patient. If a spot won’t stay stuck let it sit for a few minutes, and heat it again. The glue will acquire more tack, and 99% of the time the problem area will stay down. If it doesn’t heat the area and quickly apply a clamped block ( I use wax paper to keep it from sticking. If a clamp won’t reach, then use a block held in place with a heavy weight. I have several lead blocks for just this purpose, but I rarely need them.

1. 
   DougU | Jun 19, 2002 06:06am | #3

   Jeff

   What Bob says, especially the part about veneering the bottom side, it should be done with a like veneer, doesn't have to be the same quality but should be the same species if possible, have seen MDF cup without it.

   Good luck

   Doug

2. 
   JEvans | Jun 19, 2002 09:38pm | #4

   Thanks for the advice. I decided to use poplar instead of MDF. I picked up some 6" wide with fairly straight grain. I plan on using a counter veneer crossgrain under the face veneer. Does plum pudding mahogany  come flat or is it ripply and need flattening?

   Jeff Evans

1. 
   GClancy | Jun 19, 2002 10:21pm | #5

   Here's a tip that's too late.  A J-Roller works just as well as a veneer hammer, and they're alot cheaper.  Greg

   Edited 6/19/2002 3:22:18 PM ET by GCLANCY

2. 
   RLMillard | Jun 20, 2002 02:06am | #6

   Jeff,

   Counter veneering is the best approach. From what you said, I get the impression that you intend to place the counter under only the face veneer. That won’t work, whatever you do to one face must be done to the other. Also, when making the substrate from solid wood, this is the one and only time I recommend, cutting the boards down to narrow widths and alternating the growth rings. Better still is to rip them into a square cross section and glue them back together orienting the growth rings to a quarter-sawn configuration. This doesn’t take very long, and you end up with a very stable panel of tremendous strength. As for flattening the veneer, since it gets thoroughly soaked in the hammer veneering process, most of the time I don’t find it necessary to flatten it. Of course burls and crotches need to be and so do veneers that are brittle.