Shop made veneer

[John Moorhead]

Folks -

Well, I've only made bits and pcs of "shop" veneer before, but needed a fair amount to cover the plainsawn sides of quartersawn white oak legs, 24 pcs total.

I have a *gasp* Harbor Freight 1 1/2 hp 14 bandsaw w/riser. I was using a twolf 3/4" blade and tho' the cutting was slow, I was pleasantly surprised at how evenly the saw cut. I was getting a fair amount of vibration, but didn't suffer any blowout - and cut the pcs just shy of 1/16"... Ran them all through the drum sander and they cleaned up purdy quick. I will post pics of the progress later in ABPW. I can see that a saw with more power would be...good...

As a lark, I was able to sand some of the surplus veneer down to .013 +/- .003 on the drum sander. How they produce commercial veneer for hardwood plywood that is *SO* thin seems like a black art to me. It must take a hell of a lot of power, cast iron and way scary sharp blades...

John

[bridger]

those plies aren't sawn- they're sliced.

[LP]

As Bridger mentioned, those plies are sliced. After all the plys are glued up, the whole thing is put thru a huge sander, so getting the veneer down to see-thru is no big trick.

[Unisaw A100]

Actually, when the panel is sanded, if it's sanded, it's not sanded much. The ply starts life pretty thin. Back in "the day" we used to get veneer as thick as 1/28". Today, OK the last time I paid attention, it was down to 1/40". The thing being, the more leaves you can slice from a log the more cash at the end.

As for slicing, here's an animated demonstration.

[Greg G.]

roller press. The last few sheets of BC ply I bought (GP - made in Athens, GA) had large bolts pressed into the plys. Didn't notice till I got them home and noticed the big "T" sticking up from the surface.

How would you like to run your WW II into one of those?

Crap Wood = Iraq Rebuilding - According to the vendor... We get the crap - they get the good stuff. Thanks! :-p

Greg G.

[Slowhand]

I saw my own veneer on some projects and am completely and utterly happy getting them down to 1/16". My drum sander won't take them any thinnner than that anyway. If I need thinner, I just buy it. SH