Attaching wood veneer to a piece of wood

[Aaron Wingert]

I'm planning to make a sign for my little side business of turning turkey calls, for use when setting up donated calls at banquets, shows, taking photos of the calls, etc.

I got some small sheets of bookmatched walnut burl veneer and would like to attach it to a piece of maple. I'll then use chisels to "carve" v-shaped grooves to form the letters. The idea being that the dark walnut on the face will nicely contrast with the light colored maple in the letters.

The veneer isn't perfectly flat of course, and I don't know the best way to glue them to the maple. I know contact cement would work but I think it would look bad at the carved areas. Perhaps a couple pieces of plywood and sacks of concrete for weight??? Cauls and clamps over plywood? I don't have a vacuum veneering system (obviously).

The veneers are about 8x12" and there will be about 4 of them used...The sign will be about 32" x 12", give or take a little.

Any and all ideas appreciated for the gluing of the veneer as well as the carving. I've never done any carving and don't have any carving tools, but have good sharp chisels and a dremel!

[John Harden]

Aaron, the challenge you'll have is that a solid maple substrate will move (expand and contract) at a different rate than your walnut burl veneer. You'd likely get stress cracks or breaks in the veneer, paricularly with such a large piece. Its possible that it would remain flat and stable, but when veneering over solid wood, you're always rolling the dice.

You might consider baltic birch plywood as a substrate. It will still have the light color you're looking for to contrast with the walnut and would be much more stable. The trick will be to see how it looks when you carve down into it with your dremel.

You might want to try some test pieces to see. If you're lucky and the areas you carve out are farily small, it might work out well.

As far as pressing the veneer onto the substrate, cauls and clamps would work well. You'll want to flatten the veneer first by using either commercial veneer softener or make your own with glycerine and water. Rockler sells glycerin and the bottle has instructions on how to use it. A layer of wax paper between your panel and your plywood will keep you from having a glue sandwich on your hands.

Finally, whichever substrate you ultimately go with, make sure you veneer both sides to equal out the stresses. Veneering only one side will definitely cause the panel to warp.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

John