What would be the best way to remove badly damaged veneer from high quality birch ply without any damage to the ply? Lots of the veneer is already missing so I'd say impossible (or impractical) to repair. It's a factory made loudspeaker dating from the '80s - so wondered what sort of glue would have been used to stick on the veneer?
Planer Thicknesser ?
Jim K
Are you wanting to re-veneer or to make the birch the new finished surface? I'm only mentioning this because, if bits of the veneer have gone missing, the birch may need to be given some TLC before refinishing anyway.
I'd say that bits of veneer missing is a good sign. In all probability, if the veneering hasn't actually been done with traditional hide glue than it's probably been done with something else that is capable of breaking down. The first thing I'd try is leaving a bit of wet rag at an exposed veneer/birch boundary and see if anything gets soft or sticky. If it does then you know you are dealing with something soluble but even if it doesn't, it's worth trying to gently steam and pry it off. Wet cloth (not one of your best shirts) and a clothes iron (not the one you use for your best shirts) combined with a palate knife or wallpaper tool (I use a plastic saucepan spatula to be really gentle) Iron over the wet cloth to generate lots of steam, some of which will hopefully penetrate the veneer and soften the bond. Then gently tease the layers apart. Softly softly catchee monkey.
Nick
We used to use PVA for large areas.
Its possible a heat sensitive might have been used tho - try ironing it off
However what's the problem with damaging the ply and sanding it all off?
Given the age I'd imagine it may have been done with impact adhesive though shops were using pva for it back then. If its held with pva your job would be easier.
I'd try steam to start with and failing that heat from a domestic iron. You might have give either method a bit of time to work
Can you get a very flat blade behind areas where it has chipped ? If you can get a purchase on it it may be possible to tease it off.
Not knowing your skill levels I'd be hesitant to suggest a belt sander. Those buggers can do tremendous damage in an instant.
You could also try acetone. But you would probably have to score the surface (Can you get your hands on a toothing plane ?)and let it soak in.
Soak it in petrol ? If you are feeling brave. I've known shops to use it as lacquer thinners but it could be effective.
Lastly, have you thought of trying to repair the damaged sections. A small router with suitable bit and a template would allow you to fashion a regular shaped area and then inlay a repair patch (Bit like Boulle work)
Want to re-veneer. Which will be the subject of another thread if I succeed in getting off the old stuff. ;-)
Right. What happened was someone glued additional plywood over the already fairly tatty veneer with something like Evostick. Removing that ply took chunks of the veneer off - but leaving the original ply in what looks to be good condition. In other words, the glue gave way without taking chunks of the ply with it.
I'll try your methods, thanks.
Haven't got one. And they are very large cabinets - 400mm deep.
What about the flat toothless blade in one of those multitools,have not tried it myself.
I would have thought that was a recipe for delaminating the birch ply
NT
How about repeating the trick? (Glueing some more ply on, and try pulling that off.)
If the whole caboodle gets wet. Or hot. Or hot and wet. Then the significance of softly softly catchee monkey has probably been overlooked.
Nick
Or hire one of those things used to removed old paint quickly.
Similar to a planer thicknesser, it has a rotating cutter head with some sort of depth fence to allow you to skim off the paint but not the underlying wood.
Andrew
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