01-04-2011, 06:44 PM
Hi,
Wood veneering is a huge subject and ranges from plain veneering right through to complex marquetry. Modern readily available veneers generally are 0.7mm thick and require careful handling. Considering veneer is used by industry in vast quantities I find small quantities made available from outlets such as eBay to be quite expensive especially the more figured kinds like Burrs.
There are a number of ways of applying veneer to a substrate and the main ones are Press; Caul: Vacuum and Hammer. For radio and TV cabinetwork and my favourite is the hammer method. A veneering hammer can be bought but I made my own costing very little; although called a veneering hammer it isn’t a hammer in the normal sense of the word but more of smooth metal squeegee blade that is pulled or pushed across the surface of the newly laid veneer in order to remove excess glue ensuring the veneer is firmly pressed into close contact with the substrate.
Hot hide glue (Scotch) is the traditional glue to use for hammer veneering and at first is quite difficult for a novice to use as it requires heating in a double container until the glue runs freely from a brush dipped and withdrawn from it without the glue breaking into blobs; if hide glue is overheated it loses much of its strength but with a little practice heating and using hide glue is soon picked up. Hide glue has many benefits the main one being that it is reversible; once it is applied and allowed to fully harden; due to its terrific strength the joint made will hold for hundreds of years without failure as long as it is kept dry. With the application of heat the glue can be reactivated at any time even after a hundred years. Hide glue is not waterproof but is the best glue to use on a vintage cabinet; it has excellent filling properties and once it grabs it does so with a passion making it ideal for adding wooden glue blocks to strengthen joints; the mating surfaces of each block are quickly coated with hide glue and placed in position; a couple of quick rubs set the block in position without the need to clamp.
Ekco T311 as bought.
Hide glue gels quickly and this tends to scare a novice applying veneer for the first time it certainly scared me and I’ll never forget the panic I felt as I tried to lay my first piece of veneer trying to beat the glue before it started to gel. I worked like someone possessed trying to brush the glue; add the veneer and press the veneer down using the hammer in the hope that I could remove excess glue from the joint. Yes it was highly stressful but this was only part of the problem.
As a novice I found using hide glue to be difficult because I didn’t understand it’s properties and tried to use it in similar manner to standard glues where I could lay on the glue knowing I had time to play around a bit before the glue started to set; I ended up with sticky fingers and steam coming out of my ears due to frustration and sheer panic but now I find the whole process to be very laid back and so what if the glue sets as soon as it leaves the brush. Frame joints are treated a bit differently from veneer and in order to give more gluing time before the glue gels a hair drier can be played on both parts of the joint to raise their temperature taking care not to get the parts hotter than the glue; the joint is then quickly glued up and secured after wiping away excess glue but I’ll concentrate on veneering as this scares most people.
Badly curled Pommele veneer.
Wood veneer looks so docile and tame sitting on the bench after cutting to slightly oversize but I found veneer has a dark side only too willing to really spoil my day and giving me massive frustration. On my very first veneering job I had been meticulous to get everything just right; the cabinet surface had been scraped to perfection and dusted off; the veneer had been carefully cut using a craft knife and straightedge ensuring it was centred for pattern and allowing a little extra all around; the hide glue had been freshly made up and was placed in a home made double container consisting of an inner clean baked beans tin and wired into an old saucepan to prevent it bobbing up and down in the water; with water added between the tin and pan the glue was slowly brought up to correct temperature and a new 1” paintbrush was used to frequently check its progress. For a veneering hammer I used a heavy duty plastic scraper. I thought with all my preparations veneering would be a push over.
Veneering quickly turned into a nightmare for me; as soon as I applied the first brush full of hot hide glue the veneer physically curled up its nose at me; by the time the veneer was fully coated with glue it had curled and twisted so badly I thought it was going to walk from the bench in disgust at my ignorance. I placed it roughly in position on the panel and applied the newly bought hot clothes iron only making matters worse; the veneer refused to go down and remain down and the hot iron was starting to overheat the glue; by sheer determination and luck I found by wetting the face side of the veneer then applying the hot iron I was able to finally get the veneer into position it having finally given up fighting me but I’ll never ever forget that fight.
Inlay card template
Now fast forward to four months ago and my current restoration project this being an Ekco T311 1957 TV. This TV looked dire as it was riddled with woodworm and had lots of de-lamination to its veneer. It looked a hopeless case so I couldn’t possibly do it any damage?
Starting on this cabinet I still had a lot to learn about veneering but was up for the challenge. The cabinet was so bad that I did consider throwing it down the local tip and making a brand new cabinet but I’m a sucker for punishment so decided to try to restore it. I didn’t want to return the cabinet to as new because it looked bland with a brown treacle finish just like a piece of cheap utility furniture and I thought I have nothing to lose so wanted to experiment on it to try out a number of veneering ideas. I could visualize the finished cabinet in my head and it looked beautiful with inlaid Burr Walnut panels surrounded by boxwood stringing and Quartered Sapele cross banding. All I needed to do was to turn this idea into reality.
Cross banding in quartered Sapele.
I found Burr Walnut Veneer on eBay to be very expensive for the amount I required at just under £40 but I did find Sapele Pommele Burr and two long lengths cost £22 for the pair so I bought a pair. The Quartered Sapele I already had in stock. I wanted this cabinet to be very special and although I’ve used Boxwood stringing 30 years ago I had been surfing the Internet for ideas and found a number of extremely informative videos on “you tube” showing not only how to veneer but also how to make very fancy stringing at home. This stringing is more correctly known as banding because it consists of a number of layers of veneer but for clarity I’ll refer to it as stringing. I was amazed as I watched the videos over and over until I knew them off by heart.
I made a proper veneering hammer and bought 2KG of hide glue. My plan was to completely replace both cabinet sides thereby removing both the woodworm and de-lamination damage at one go but I had never seen such drastic repairs carried out and to make it even more difficult I decided to share my story of work in progress with the world adding it as a thread on the forum listed below. I knew at the end of the restoration I would either look good or a total plonker but I would do my best.
Main veneers laid.
I suffered deeply whilst trying to find decent plywood driving around in snow and ice but gave up after buying three lots only to find it was rubbish once I got it home and closely inspected it; totally disgusted at wasting so much time and effort I eventually bought an 8’x4’ sheet of 6mm MDF cutting the sheet by hand at the suppliers in order for it to fit into our Toyota Aygo car.
Over the next four months I made steady progress but could only work for an hour some days due to the freezing conditions; I cut all the materials in the garage but did all the veneering and final French polishing in our kitchen. The working conditions were very poor with bad lighting and I kept feeling frozen but I battled on. I laid the cabinet side down onto a piece of MDF and carefully drew around it using a pencil; at the back and bottom edges I drew these exactly to size for later datum points but allowed1/4” extra on the other two sides. The MDF was then cut out on the huge Startrite bandsaw. Now came the veneering.
In order to prevent such a piece of core material as the MDF from warping due to the hide glue exerting tremendous pressure both sides of the MDF had to be veneered. I used Quartered Sapele for the inner side but a selection of Quartered Sapele; Sapele Pommele and stringing for the face side.
Routing stringing grooves.
I was rather nervous at attempting so much veneering but I had been watching an excellent video and knew what to do. I set everything up in the kitchen. Cut the veneers roughly to size allowing extra length and width; mixed up a new batch of hide glue heating this in my proper cast iron glue pot bought from eBay; setting the electric iron to hot; filled a bowl with warm water and cut some clean cloth. I decided to apply the balancing Quartered Sapele veneer to the inner surface first in case anything went wrong then I would not lose too much money. Three widths would be needed to cover the panel. I didn’t mess around this time as I knew what to do so using a cloth I soaked both sides of the first piece of veneer then placing it onto the work surface went over a number of times using the hot iron making it sizzle but never letting the veneer dry out; the veneer was then turned over and again run over with the hot iron; I did this a couple of times and after wetting and applying the iron the veneer decided it wasn’t worth fighting me and gave in remaining dead flat on the work surface; I went over again with the wet cloth then carried the glue pot within easy reach; the inner face of the MDF was gone over with the wet cloth followed by brushing on a generous coat of hot hide glue; the glue started to gel quickly and I just laughed at it as I now knew it wasn’t a problem so didn’t try to rush.
Corner grooves to cut.
Wiping away excess water from the glue side of the veneer the veneer was carefully positioned on the panel and ensuring the face side of the veneer remained wet I went over it with the iron; this immediately softened the glue and it was easy to use the hammer forcing out excess glue which I removed with a damp cloth. With the veneer now successfully glued in position I used a dry cloth to remove most of the water from its face then repeated the process adding the other two pieces of veneer ensuring the joints were firmly abutted. This was a revelation to me as it was so easy; I was rather anxious during veneering but by the time the third piece was being laid I felt a real sense of satisfaction and could relax; at last I had cracked basic veneering and having enjoyed this success could now turn the MDF over and set about applying the more difficult veneers.
Looks rough. scraping stringing.
The cabinet sides proved quite difficult because the edges were both straight and curved in places so after a lot of thought I made a template out of stiff picture mounting card. This template was cut to the exact size of the inlaid Pommele panel and was triple checked for size. Sapele Pommele was cut oversize and as two widths would be needed it was book matched from the two long lengths of Pommele. In order to do this the two lengths were laid out on the kitchen floor and veneer is sold in consecutive leaves as they are cut from the log. Leaving the bottom leaf as it was I merely turned over the top leaf just like opening a book hence the name book matching; it was easy to align the grain pattern and then cut out two oversize pieces.
I followed the same procedure for laying as I had done previously but with one exception; the edges of this veneer were not trimmed accurately straight so I drew a line on the MDF allowing 1/2” extra width over centre; the veneer was laid now up to the pencil line and the second piece of veneer was laid taking great care to ensure it was book matched and allowed to overlap the joint; a wooden straightedge was aligned with the centre marks and pressing it firmly to prevent it moving a very sharp craft knife was run along the joint ensuring the blade remained in contact with the straightedge and using a number of passes with the knife to completely cut through both veneers; the knife and straightedge were placed out of the way and the top surplus veneer was peeled away then the joint was opened slightly to release the bottom waste strip of veneer then the hot iron was run over quickly followed by the hammer to press the joint firmly home; this method ensures a perfect joint every time. Working quickly the card template was accurately positioned and the craft knife run around allowing excess veneer to be removed leaving the remaining inlaid panel of Pommele. Care was taken to remove excess glue with a damp cloth and wipe dry using a dry cloth.
Now I was feeling very confident and spent time accurately cutting the cross banding veneers from quartered Sapele. This was not as easy as it first appeared until I tried using tracing paper; tracing paper patterns were drawn and cut then overlaid onto the veneer taking care with grain direction and each piece was very carefully cut out using the craft knife cutting with at least three passes with the knife; breakout occurred with the first piece but I quickly learnt to cut in from each edge preventing this breakout happening again. The cross banding was glued into position abutting the inlaid panel and with extra width allowed on the outer edge. Again the veneer was wiped clean of excess glue and dried. Only the stringing was now needed to complete the first cabinet side panel; I felt over the moon at this success and had very much enjoyed the process. The second piece of MDF was then veneered using exactly the same technique.
Initially I intended to use boxwood stringing which is readily available but after surfing the web for veneering advice I found a number of videos on you tube showing how to make fancy bandings; these bandings are very expensive to buy ready made but the process of making them looked easy. I already had a stock of Quartered Sapele and another veneer in a very light colour the name of which I don’t know but both these together gave a pleasing contrast and above all they cost me nothing so I could experiment with them. I laid up a sandwich consisting of four layers of veneer and again used my favourite hide glue before placing the glued sandwich between two lengths of dead straight timber and applying pressure with many clamps; the glue was allowed to set for a day before removing the clamps and I now had what looked like a bit of plywood which after allowing it to completely dry I cut into 3/32” strips. These strops would be laid with the dark end grain uppermost.
Cutting the stringing grooves was quite a challenge but in the end I made up my own router bit from ¼” silver steel rod and this was used in the router against very accurately cut guides cutting the grooves to 0.060”. This was a slow job as much care was needed because one slip would ruin a great deal of work. The grooves were then cleaned out and the stringing carefully glued in using quick setting woodworking adhesive pressing the stringing tightly home with a rubber roller; excess glue was very carefully removed using a damp cloth; the glue was allowed to set overnight before the stringing was brought down flush with a very sharp cabinet scraper. All I needed to do now was to completely remove the cabinet sides and add the new ones.
Complete cabinet side removed.
For the full story please visit;
http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showt...hp?t=62371
For a brilliant introduction into veneering and highly recommended by me; please visit;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awIBy11kMA8&feature=related
For an introduction into how to make stringing/banding please visit;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvxKrXYXc0g&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Yb5_RfP3o&NR=1
What a joy.
Veneering is difficult at first but a whole lot easier with these notes and I hope others will be encouraged to have a go because using cheaper veneers to begin with the materials and tools cost very little but the results with a lot of patience can be outstanding. I enjoyed this cabinet restoration immensely and I’m self taught. I hope the thread is of use.
Kind regards, Col.
Wood veneering is a huge subject and ranges from plain veneering right through to complex marquetry. Modern readily available veneers generally are 0.7mm thick and require careful handling. Considering veneer is used by industry in vast quantities I find small quantities made available from outlets such as eBay to be quite expensive especially the more figured kinds like Burrs.
There are a number of ways of applying veneer to a substrate and the main ones are Press; Caul: Vacuum and Hammer. For radio and TV cabinetwork and my favourite is the hammer method. A veneering hammer can be bought but I made my own costing very little; although called a veneering hammer it isn’t a hammer in the normal sense of the word but more of smooth metal squeegee blade that is pulled or pushed across the surface of the newly laid veneer in order to remove excess glue ensuring the veneer is firmly pressed into close contact with the substrate.
Hot hide glue (Scotch) is the traditional glue to use for hammer veneering and at first is quite difficult for a novice to use as it requires heating in a double container until the glue runs freely from a brush dipped and withdrawn from it without the glue breaking into blobs; if hide glue is overheated it loses much of its strength but with a little practice heating and using hide glue is soon picked up. Hide glue has many benefits the main one being that it is reversible; once it is applied and allowed to fully harden; due to its terrific strength the joint made will hold for hundreds of years without failure as long as it is kept dry. With the application of heat the glue can be reactivated at any time even after a hundred years. Hide glue is not waterproof but is the best glue to use on a vintage cabinet; it has excellent filling properties and once it grabs it does so with a passion making it ideal for adding wooden glue blocks to strengthen joints; the mating surfaces of each block are quickly coated with hide glue and placed in position; a couple of quick rubs set the block in position without the need to clamp.
Ekco T311 as bought.
Hide glue gels quickly and this tends to scare a novice applying veneer for the first time it certainly scared me and I’ll never forget the panic I felt as I tried to lay my first piece of veneer trying to beat the glue before it started to gel. I worked like someone possessed trying to brush the glue; add the veneer and press the veneer down using the hammer in the hope that I could remove excess glue from the joint. Yes it was highly stressful but this was only part of the problem.
As a novice I found using hide glue to be difficult because I didn’t understand it’s properties and tried to use it in similar manner to standard glues where I could lay on the glue knowing I had time to play around a bit before the glue started to set; I ended up with sticky fingers and steam coming out of my ears due to frustration and sheer panic but now I find the whole process to be very laid back and so what if the glue sets as soon as it leaves the brush. Frame joints are treated a bit differently from veneer and in order to give more gluing time before the glue gels a hair drier can be played on both parts of the joint to raise their temperature taking care not to get the parts hotter than the glue; the joint is then quickly glued up and secured after wiping away excess glue but I’ll concentrate on veneering as this scares most people.
Badly curled Pommele veneer.
Wood veneer looks so docile and tame sitting on the bench after cutting to slightly oversize but I found veneer has a dark side only too willing to really spoil my day and giving me massive frustration. On my very first veneering job I had been meticulous to get everything just right; the cabinet surface had been scraped to perfection and dusted off; the veneer had been carefully cut using a craft knife and straightedge ensuring it was centred for pattern and allowing a little extra all around; the hide glue had been freshly made up and was placed in a home made double container consisting of an inner clean baked beans tin and wired into an old saucepan to prevent it bobbing up and down in the water; with water added between the tin and pan the glue was slowly brought up to correct temperature and a new 1” paintbrush was used to frequently check its progress. For a veneering hammer I used a heavy duty plastic scraper. I thought with all my preparations veneering would be a push over.
Veneering quickly turned into a nightmare for me; as soon as I applied the first brush full of hot hide glue the veneer physically curled up its nose at me; by the time the veneer was fully coated with glue it had curled and twisted so badly I thought it was going to walk from the bench in disgust at my ignorance. I placed it roughly in position on the panel and applied the newly bought hot clothes iron only making matters worse; the veneer refused to go down and remain down and the hot iron was starting to overheat the glue; by sheer determination and luck I found by wetting the face side of the veneer then applying the hot iron I was able to finally get the veneer into position it having finally given up fighting me but I’ll never ever forget that fight.
Inlay card template
Now fast forward to four months ago and my current restoration project this being an Ekco T311 1957 TV. This TV looked dire as it was riddled with woodworm and had lots of de-lamination to its veneer. It looked a hopeless case so I couldn’t possibly do it any damage?
Starting on this cabinet I still had a lot to learn about veneering but was up for the challenge. The cabinet was so bad that I did consider throwing it down the local tip and making a brand new cabinet but I’m a sucker for punishment so decided to try to restore it. I didn’t want to return the cabinet to as new because it looked bland with a brown treacle finish just like a piece of cheap utility furniture and I thought I have nothing to lose so wanted to experiment on it to try out a number of veneering ideas. I could visualize the finished cabinet in my head and it looked beautiful with inlaid Burr Walnut panels surrounded by boxwood stringing and Quartered Sapele cross banding. All I needed to do was to turn this idea into reality.
Cross banding in quartered Sapele.
I found Burr Walnut Veneer on eBay to be very expensive for the amount I required at just under £40 but I did find Sapele Pommele Burr and two long lengths cost £22 for the pair so I bought a pair. The Quartered Sapele I already had in stock. I wanted this cabinet to be very special and although I’ve used Boxwood stringing 30 years ago I had been surfing the Internet for ideas and found a number of extremely informative videos on “you tube” showing not only how to veneer but also how to make very fancy stringing at home. This stringing is more correctly known as banding because it consists of a number of layers of veneer but for clarity I’ll refer to it as stringing. I was amazed as I watched the videos over and over until I knew them off by heart.
I made a proper veneering hammer and bought 2KG of hide glue. My plan was to completely replace both cabinet sides thereby removing both the woodworm and de-lamination damage at one go but I had never seen such drastic repairs carried out and to make it even more difficult I decided to share my story of work in progress with the world adding it as a thread on the forum listed below. I knew at the end of the restoration I would either look good or a total plonker but I would do my best.
Main veneers laid.
I suffered deeply whilst trying to find decent plywood driving around in snow and ice but gave up after buying three lots only to find it was rubbish once I got it home and closely inspected it; totally disgusted at wasting so much time and effort I eventually bought an 8’x4’ sheet of 6mm MDF cutting the sheet by hand at the suppliers in order for it to fit into our Toyota Aygo car.
Over the next four months I made steady progress but could only work for an hour some days due to the freezing conditions; I cut all the materials in the garage but did all the veneering and final French polishing in our kitchen. The working conditions were very poor with bad lighting and I kept feeling frozen but I battled on. I laid the cabinet side down onto a piece of MDF and carefully drew around it using a pencil; at the back and bottom edges I drew these exactly to size for later datum points but allowed1/4” extra on the other two sides. The MDF was then cut out on the huge Startrite bandsaw. Now came the veneering.
In order to prevent such a piece of core material as the MDF from warping due to the hide glue exerting tremendous pressure both sides of the MDF had to be veneered. I used Quartered Sapele for the inner side but a selection of Quartered Sapele; Sapele Pommele and stringing for the face side.
Routing stringing grooves.
I was rather nervous at attempting so much veneering but I had been watching an excellent video and knew what to do. I set everything up in the kitchen. Cut the veneers roughly to size allowing extra length and width; mixed up a new batch of hide glue heating this in my proper cast iron glue pot bought from eBay; setting the electric iron to hot; filled a bowl with warm water and cut some clean cloth. I decided to apply the balancing Quartered Sapele veneer to the inner surface first in case anything went wrong then I would not lose too much money. Three widths would be needed to cover the panel. I didn’t mess around this time as I knew what to do so using a cloth I soaked both sides of the first piece of veneer then placing it onto the work surface went over a number of times using the hot iron making it sizzle but never letting the veneer dry out; the veneer was then turned over and again run over with the hot iron; I did this a couple of times and after wetting and applying the iron the veneer decided it wasn’t worth fighting me and gave in remaining dead flat on the work surface; I went over again with the wet cloth then carried the glue pot within easy reach; the inner face of the MDF was gone over with the wet cloth followed by brushing on a generous coat of hot hide glue; the glue started to gel quickly and I just laughed at it as I now knew it wasn’t a problem so didn’t try to rush.
Corner grooves to cut.
Wiping away excess water from the glue side of the veneer the veneer was carefully positioned on the panel and ensuring the face side of the veneer remained wet I went over it with the iron; this immediately softened the glue and it was easy to use the hammer forcing out excess glue which I removed with a damp cloth. With the veneer now successfully glued in position I used a dry cloth to remove most of the water from its face then repeated the process adding the other two pieces of veneer ensuring the joints were firmly abutted. This was a revelation to me as it was so easy; I was rather anxious during veneering but by the time the third piece was being laid I felt a real sense of satisfaction and could relax; at last I had cracked basic veneering and having enjoyed this success could now turn the MDF over and set about applying the more difficult veneers.
Looks rough. scraping stringing.
The cabinet sides proved quite difficult because the edges were both straight and curved in places so after a lot of thought I made a template out of stiff picture mounting card. This template was cut to the exact size of the inlaid Pommele panel and was triple checked for size. Sapele Pommele was cut oversize and as two widths would be needed it was book matched from the two long lengths of Pommele. In order to do this the two lengths were laid out on the kitchen floor and veneer is sold in consecutive leaves as they are cut from the log. Leaving the bottom leaf as it was I merely turned over the top leaf just like opening a book hence the name book matching; it was easy to align the grain pattern and then cut out two oversize pieces.
I followed the same procedure for laying as I had done previously but with one exception; the edges of this veneer were not trimmed accurately straight so I drew a line on the MDF allowing 1/2” extra width over centre; the veneer was laid now up to the pencil line and the second piece of veneer was laid taking great care to ensure it was book matched and allowed to overlap the joint; a wooden straightedge was aligned with the centre marks and pressing it firmly to prevent it moving a very sharp craft knife was run along the joint ensuring the blade remained in contact with the straightedge and using a number of passes with the knife to completely cut through both veneers; the knife and straightedge were placed out of the way and the top surplus veneer was peeled away then the joint was opened slightly to release the bottom waste strip of veneer then the hot iron was run over quickly followed by the hammer to press the joint firmly home; this method ensures a perfect joint every time. Working quickly the card template was accurately positioned and the craft knife run around allowing excess veneer to be removed leaving the remaining inlaid panel of Pommele. Care was taken to remove excess glue with a damp cloth and wipe dry using a dry cloth.
Now I was feeling very confident and spent time accurately cutting the cross banding veneers from quartered Sapele. This was not as easy as it first appeared until I tried using tracing paper; tracing paper patterns were drawn and cut then overlaid onto the veneer taking care with grain direction and each piece was very carefully cut out using the craft knife cutting with at least three passes with the knife; breakout occurred with the first piece but I quickly learnt to cut in from each edge preventing this breakout happening again. The cross banding was glued into position abutting the inlaid panel and with extra width allowed on the outer edge. Again the veneer was wiped clean of excess glue and dried. Only the stringing was now needed to complete the first cabinet side panel; I felt over the moon at this success and had very much enjoyed the process. The second piece of MDF was then veneered using exactly the same technique.
Initially I intended to use boxwood stringing which is readily available but after surfing the web for veneering advice I found a number of videos on you tube showing how to make fancy bandings; these bandings are very expensive to buy ready made but the process of making them looked easy. I already had a stock of Quartered Sapele and another veneer in a very light colour the name of which I don’t know but both these together gave a pleasing contrast and above all they cost me nothing so I could experiment with them. I laid up a sandwich consisting of four layers of veneer and again used my favourite hide glue before placing the glued sandwich between two lengths of dead straight timber and applying pressure with many clamps; the glue was allowed to set for a day before removing the clamps and I now had what looked like a bit of plywood which after allowing it to completely dry I cut into 3/32” strips. These strops would be laid with the dark end grain uppermost.
Cutting the stringing grooves was quite a challenge but in the end I made up my own router bit from ¼” silver steel rod and this was used in the router against very accurately cut guides cutting the grooves to 0.060”. This was a slow job as much care was needed because one slip would ruin a great deal of work. The grooves were then cleaned out and the stringing carefully glued in using quick setting woodworking adhesive pressing the stringing tightly home with a rubber roller; excess glue was very carefully removed using a damp cloth; the glue was allowed to set overnight before the stringing was brought down flush with a very sharp cabinet scraper. All I needed to do now was to completely remove the cabinet sides and add the new ones.
Complete cabinet side removed.
For the full story please visit;
http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showt...hp?t=62371
For a brilliant introduction into veneering and highly recommended by me; please visit;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awIBy11kMA8&feature=related
For an introduction into how to make stringing/banding please visit;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvxKrXYXc0g&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Yb5_RfP3o&NR=1
What a joy.
Veneering is difficult at first but a whole lot easier with these notes and I hope others will be encouraged to have a go because using cheaper veneers to begin with the materials and tools cost very little but the results with a lot of patience can be outstanding. I enjoyed this cabinet restoration immensely and I’m self taught. I hope the thread is of use.
Kind regards, Col.