I have been experimenting with making my own veneers lately. I have no problem slicing off nice even pieces with my bandsaw but once sliced off how do I smooth them? Even with a smooth blade I have bandsaw track I need to remove.
I want to make veneers down to about 1/32″ thick.
I have used my thickness planer and with straight grained material I can plane down to 1/16 with sharp blades and light passes.
But I have a burl I would like to slice and the sample section I put through the planer had lots of chipout even at 1/4 thick and taking a ~1/128 pass.
I don’t have a drum sander I have considered buying one but all of my research says that they are only good down to 1/16. If a drum sander is they way to go which one should I buy for this type of work.
The main reason for making my own veneers is I want to make federal reproductions (think Rob Millard’s work)
So 200 years ago they were making veneer, how did they do it?
How do you smooth veneers?
Replies
I would say they were probably using scrapers. I've sawn my own veneers on the bandsaw before - mainly to get thick veneers or veneers from "recycled" antiques - but I've never felt the need to sand them. I've just finished them with scrapers after laying up on the piece. There is a thread elsewhere which discusses the relative merits of sanding vs. scraping
Scrit
There is a simple answer about veneer preparation 200 years ago. .First, they made no attempt to get down to 1/32nd. Veneer on old furniture is often 1/16th thick, and may have been sawn even thicker. You have one prepared face, which you did before sawing. Its then opposite the side you just sawed. Glue the prepared side down. When the glue is cured you have an easy surface to plane with your smoothing plane. Since the veneer is relatively thick it's not a problem to avoid cutting through.
Even back then preparing veneers and inlays was a specialty. Those shops building in the Federal style in larger cities simply bought their veneer and inlay from a specialty supplier. Methodologies for making interesting stringing and inlay was a closely guarded trade secret and a marketable skill in itself.
I would suggest that perhaps you have the cart before the horse if you aren't already a pretty accomplished maker of furniture in this style. Knock out a few significant pieces using commercially available veneer first and then try processing your own veneer.
That said, you can bring bandsaw sliced veneer to useable form with hand planes, scrapers, and scraper planes. A *quality* drum sander is the power tool for the job if you decide to go that route. Leave it thick as Steve suggested.
Edited 11/9/2005 3:17 pm ET by BossCrunk
Edited 11/9/2005 5:53 pm ET by BossCrunk
Having your veneers to 1/16th is ideal. Turn over enough period pieces in the federal style (and others) and you'll discover that veneers were, more often than not, 1/16th.
You should be able to sand and/or scrape the bandsaw blade marks away. If that's not the case, maybe you're not using the proper blade. Generally speaking, I can whisk the blade marks right off using a light touch from an RO sander (flat surfaces only, or course), then scrape the veneers smooth.
Regards.
I've used a Performax 16/32 to sand down very thin woods by placing them on top of a very flat piece used as a sled. Take light passes. And since the drum is adjustable (the outfeed is not closed and you can tilt the outfeed up or down, as you like) make sure to make the passes in the same place on the drum so that you get consistent sanding. I've used this method to sand down commercial banding which was much thicker than the groove into which it was going to be glued. Easier than planing or sanding it down after installation.
John
This may be boneheadly obvious but you pass it through a planer after each flitch is cut, you end up with one smooth side (the side you glue down) and the other you can leave rough until after it is glued to the surface you are applying it to.
You don't need two smooth surfaces to start with...only one.
I use sawn veneer exclusively (you can tell I have a day job!) I use the planer or the drum sander (for gnarly woods) to resurface the face of the flitch (the rough block) between bandsawing veneers. Then, I put the veneers on a sled and run the unsanded side through the drum sander again. I used to use a thin board under the bottom roller of my 6 x 48 belt sander to thickness veneer before my wife bought me the royobi drum sander for christmas.
I leave the surfaces sanded to about 60 grit before glue up. I like to use about 1/16th or a little less thickness for the veneers. I then surface the veneered panel with a #80 handled scraper and the result is pretty good for an amateur wood butcher.
Sawn veneer is heads and shoulders above sliced veneer for finished appearance. Sliced veneer is bent 30 to 50 degrees sharply at the knife while cutting and lots of wood fibers rupture. When finished, these sliced (commercial) veneers look muddy and splotchy unless you take serious precautions finishing. Sawn veneers finish like solid wood.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled