Selah Tribute

Tribute to Jeff Bagby from Rick Craig. Speakers built by Kevin Kendrick.
Thumbnail for I've bookmatched a few times now. IMO, the veneer needs to be as flat as possible for good book matches. You can buy softeners or you can make your own. Found a recipe online a couple of years ago, it has worked well for me. 6 parts distilled water, 3 parts denatured alcohol, 1 part glycerin.
Thumbnail for Found this tip online sometime back and it makes a world of difference when crosscutting veneer. Lightly dampen the veneer with a wet cloth along your cut line, both sides. Before I found this tip, I almost always fractured the veneer towards the end I was pulling towards with the veneer saw (pictured next). Haven't had any issues since incorporating this into my routine. This tip is really only needed for crosscuts, cuts with the grain are much easier.
Thumbnail for In this case, I needed to retain as much of the original width as possible. Two consecutive pieces of the veneer were crosscut to length first and then stacked on top of each other for the rip cut. I prefer a piece of MDF as the straight edge to guide with, no chance of it damaging my veneer saw blade. The little handsaw can be purchased from numerous places online. I like to support small business owners when I can and get most of my tools and supplies from Veneer Supplies.com. Here is a link to the saw.
Thumbnail for It's very easy to lose track of which piece came from which piece of veneer. I mark my individual sheets to help me keep them oriented and tied together. In the picture above, the two pieces came from sheet number 3 and sheet number 4 (top corners are marked). Although you would think as long as these two pieces stayed together, it wouldn't matter which side was up and which side was down. There's a definite difference in the character of the wood when flipped over and it doesn't line up as well one way vs the other. Picture on the right is the same two pieces as on the left but flipped over to see the back side
Thumbnail for (Untitled)
Thumbnail for (Untitled)
Thumbnail for Once I had two sets, I placed them on a piece of scrap cardboard and sprayed them down with the softener. Wet one side, immediately flip and wet the other side. If you try to saturate the veneer from one side only, it will curl and buckle worse. After they've sat 5-10 minutes soaking up the softener, I'll blot up any remaining puddles and then proceed to put them between two boards to be clamped flat. BTW, if it's not obvious by the second picture, this is when you would usually get a really good idea of what the veneer will look like once finished. The oranges and reds in this lot are incredible
Thumbnail for Clamp for a few hours and open it back up to inspect for moisture. If needed, replace the paper and clamp for additional time until they are dry.
Thumbnail for Two pieces end to end. Cover with a single sheet of the brown paper and then repeat the process for the next set of veneer. I usually limit my number of veneer layers to three. Once you have finished the layers, make sure the top has two sheets of paper (just like the bottom did). That will prevent a lot of the moisture from getting into your flattening boards.
Thumbnail for Clamp for a few hours and open it back up to inspect for moisture. If needed, replace the paper and clamp for additional time until they are dry.
Thumbnail for Here is a close up of one of the sidewall sets. There are a couple of splits about an inch left and right of the edges that will get worse if I don't soften and flatten this veneer. Can't even attempt to straighten the book match edges until this stuff is treated. Otherwise, the splits will grow. Once these were flattened, I added additional tape over the splits to prevent any glue from coming through and to help prevent any further expansion of the splits.
« Prev | Page 3 | (Next)