Hi,
Please help. I have a cupped roughly 13″ x 13″ veneered 1/4 inch plywood panel I would like to flatten. On one side I have put together a pattern made much the way you might build inlay by cross cutting several different shapes, gluing it into blocks then eventually bandsawed thin (about 1/16 – 1/32) pieces. This “veneer” is made of cherry and maple. I’m not sure of the plywood but it is a good quality plywood and was near perfectly flat when I started. The gluing process is where I may have went wrong. I first glued my home made veneer on one side with white Elmer’s glue, let it dry overnight, unclamped and let it sit out for a day or two before I finally was able to glue the other side. This time with a commercial burl veneer much thinner than mine. After that was out of the clamps for a couple of days it started to warp. I guess this could be due to climate changes instead of poor technique. 😉
My first thought was to try something like a wet towel and an iron on the convex home made side but am afraid it would loosen the glue. I have enough time into this that I would really like to get it as flat as possible. Sanding it down at this point would be difficult to keep it even. The cup is not real bad but just noticeable. It’s meant to be the front cover of a scrap booking album for my wife.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Replies
Hi MinLitchfield,
First let me say that veneering is not my area of expertise – I do know the basics though. One of the other experts may want to jump in and help out. Having said that, I think I see a couple of places where you may have gone wrong.
First - the time between gluing the front side and the back side may have been a contributing factor. This may have allowed uneven moisture absorption.
But I think the real culprit here is the difference in thickness of the materials of the two faces. This is causing an imbalance in tension and to some degree uneven moisture absorption as well. I am not certain there is an easy fix for your problem. You could try adding material to the back side to balance the panel out, but how much to add would be a guessing game at best and I feel it very unlikely you could achieve a working balance given the uneven thickness of the front face.
My suggestion would be to house the panel in a solid wood frame to keep it flat. Let me know if the frame idea is a workable solution for you.
Darrell
Hi Darrell,Thanks for you reply. There are some good lessons learned here. With the other panel I used the same thickness of veneer and glued both sides at the same time with good results. Placing the panel in a frame is not an option but a good suggestion. What I finally tried was a couple sprays of water and sandwiched it in with the glue up of the other panel. Once it came out it didn't look too bad. Since the one side was thicker it took some sanding but now both sides are about equal.I'm on to the finishing stage.Again, thanks for you help.
Mark
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