Does anyone see a problem

[Jay Jolliffe]

with laminating 2 3/4 pieces of birch plywood and then veneering both sides. I have to make a bed & the rails will be 1 1/2 thick. Then I have to veneer one side with macasser ebony and the other side with poplar, stained black.

[Van Huskey]

with laminating 2 3/4 pieces of birch plywood and then veneering both sides. I have to make a bed & the rails will be 1 1/2 thick. Then I have to veneer one side with macasser ebony and the other side with poplar, stained black.


I don't see any issues, all you are doing is making a roughly 1.5 inch piece of plywood and veneering it.

[keith ouellette]

I did that for my work bench 5 years ago and its still holding strong. I made the rails by laminating the plywood together and then covered it with hard maple. The difference was the plywood I used was common 3/4" plywood( 6"wide)and I only put the maple on one side and it was only tacked on with finish nails.

The problem I had was having a flat piece after the clamp up, not to mention the number of clamps.

some one , I think it was sam layton, built an I beam first so he would have a very flat surface to make laminations for a door. that procedure worked out very well.

[Lee Schierer]

Just make sure you have lots of clamps and clamp it up so that it is perfectly straight. Your clamps will need to apply some pressure toward the center as well as along the edges to get the strongest glue up. Have you considered buying a small LVL and ripping it to width (height)?? They come about that thickness and might be cheaper than your two pieces of plywood and glue up labor.

[Jay Jolliffe]

Thanks for the feedback....I have a vacuum press that I was going to use.

[John Piwaron]

Have you considered buying a small LVL and ripping it to width (height)?? They come about that thickness and might be cheaper than your two pieces of plywood and glue up labor.


Pardon my denseness, but what's "LVL"?

[Don Orr]

Pardon my denseness, but what's "LVL"?


Laminated veneer lumber-used as header material for framing and for long spans. It comes standard 1 3/4" thick and various widths corresponding to dimensional lumber(Sort of).

[Kent A Bathurst]

Pardon my denseness, but what's "LVL"?

John - the "more than you really wanted to know" answer:

Laminated Veneer Lumber - to us it looks like plywood on the Mark McGuire nutrition plan. Engineered for structural performance. Commonly in construction dimensions (ie - 1-1/2" thick, 3-1/2" thick, etc) by any range of widths. Manufactured in "billets" up to 48" wide x 60' (yes, feet) long - maybe 72' - I forget . Typically used in place of solid-sawn lumber for headers in door and window openings - especially garage doors and definitley clear-span double garage doors - and clear-span openings (like in walls between rooms in an open-plan design). Also used for marriage beams in manufactured housing - the longitudinal beam above the ceiling in mating house sections that are assembled on-site. Stronger than solid-sawn and stable. Instead of, say a pair of 2x8 with a 1/2" shim to make a 3-1/2" thick x 7-1/4" tall doorway header, you would use one piece of 3-1/2" LVL, maybe 5" (??) tall. You can rip it just like any other piece of thick wood.

Lumber yards that specialize in the building trades carry it. Don't know if BORGs carry it - but I doubt it.

[Paul Atkins]

I was going to suggest vacuum too. I've made thicker plywood this way and the vacuum press works great. You can do the veneer with it once it's set up. We once made rounded bed corners with a 1" alder core (one quarter of a cylinder) and two layers of bending ply plus the claro veneer. Solid as a rock. All with the vacuum.

[Dan Forman]

Warning for folks thinking about using LVL. I ordered some for a project based on the article in Pop WW where they used it for a workbench. Theirs was made from southern yellow pine, and looked good. What I got was doug fir, and it has all kinds of knots in it. When I ran it through the J/P, some of those knots came loose, so now the faces have a number of holes in that face layers which would make supporting veneer difficult. So if you are in the south, you should be in good shape, If in the northwest, go look at it first.

Dan

[Rick Fisher]

The next time I build a workbench.. I think I will use Parralam for the bench top..

Sand it smooth and oil it ... I think it would be a heck of a strong top..

[Lee Schierer]

What I got was doug fir, and it has all kinds of knots in it. When I ran it through the J/P, some of those knots came loose, so now the faces have a number of holes in that face layers which would make supporting veneer difficult.

Dan
Wow, that's not what I saw when I put up the LVL's in my shop to replace a poorly constructed main beam. The sides were all clear wood that had been painted. Since it is basically thick plywood, I wouldn't recommend running it through a planer and only a jointer along the edges.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

The rails on my bed are 3 layers - 3/4mdf, 3/4 plywood, 3/4mdf. 2-1/4" thick, with walnut veneer dyed black. Walnut is an awesome wood for dying black.