I’m about to laminate an 8-in.-diameter jointed pine column with kraft-backed cherry veneer. The column will be for interior use, and I will seal the wood on the inside to (hopefully) minimize the intrusion of moisture.
But I’m worried that as the pine expands and contracts, the veneer may crack – has anybody done anything like this before?
Justin Fink – FHB Editorial
Replies
What type of glue are you going to use? Paper-backed veneers are usually applied with contact cement. I've never had any crack, but I've had plenty bubble up on me. If you could find someone with a vacuum bag veneer press you could use a PVA glue(quickly) or plastic resin glue for much better results. Regardless, I wouldn't concern about cracking.
-Paul
I used to buy from a company called Hollowood which made tubular plywood even up to those sizes, and very reasonably, too. The tubing was made by wrapping some substrate veneer - poplar it looked to be - around a mandrel, with the final layer being a glorious veneer. It doesn't seem that the poplar could be any more prone to expansion than wrapping multiple flat-sawn layers in a circle, could it? Anyway, i bought oodles of the stuff, in all kinds of domestic and exotic veneers, and nothing ever split. The 'show' veneers were incredibly thin, so maybe they actually stretched with expansion and contraction, where your paper-backed ones might not.
A search of the net seems to indicate they went out of business about 2002, however. Damn, thought i had your problem solved. Does the column have to be load-bearing, or could you veneer something more stable, like PVC?
Edited 4/28/2006 2:46 am ET by splintergroupie
There was an article in FWW some years back about a guy that was veneering over pvc pipe using epoxy if I remember. Looked interesting, have thought about it a few times over the years. I think he was using pvc and stove pipe for cauls.
It's not going to be load bearing, but rather a faux column which will surround a load bearing post in order to dress it up a bit. I hadn't thought of PVC, though that would have to be one honkin' big PVC pipe.Justin Fink - FHB Editorial
PVC pipe is available to 24" diameter, not at Home Depot, of course, but a decent plumbing supply place would have 8" pipe. There are two "strengths", called Schedule 40 or Schedule 80. The latter's wall thichness is roughly 50% greater in that size. A friend used a 6" diameter PVC pipe to replace a wood column that rotted out from under the corner of his small entry porch in his Northwet home. It was painted so sunlight couldn't degrade it and looks for all the world like a fresh wood column from the curb. I was sure it would start to bend after a season of being loaded, but it's still straight as ever.
The short answer is not if you do it right. Patrick Edwards has an interesting and common sense approach and explains it at:
http://home.pacbell.net/ebeniste/articleMC.htm
I'm surprised to see him recommend hide glue - but this is a great article, thanks for the help!Justin Fink - FHB Editorial
Lots of people who work with veneer prefer hide glue. Pat Edwards likes it so much that he sells a liquid version of his own. I wouldn't use in for an exterior application, but its as strong as any glue around and has the desirable property of drawing veneer down to the substrate as it cures.
That's an intriguing article, LW, thanks for posting the link. I chuckled at this sentence: "Unfortunately, my early efforts to duplicate this method met with such dramatic failures that I abandoned the idea for 20 years."
Eventually figured it out though! A determined and resourceful man.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Search the FWW (not Knots) archives--someone had an article on veneering columns sometime in the past 20 years. I recall the article, but not when it was done...
I think what is the most important part of his veneering equation, is the Pine column. I don't think you could seal the pine enough to prevent major movement, enough to split the veneer wide open.
In the article by Patrick Edwards, he used solid Poplar or Hond Mah turned columns, not stave built Pine columns.
The only way I would even attempt this, is to move the column to be veneered, into an interior space with similar humidity and temp for at least 2 months and then veneer promptly. It would also be advisable to check moisture readings before and after the 2 months.
It would take even more work, but to veneer with a underlayment cross grain, run the grain around the column instead of up and down. And then glue the face veneer on vertically, that may work. Good luck.
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