Help needed applying veneer to curved surfaces

[Gerry Mills]

I restore and rebuild pianos, some of which are 100 years or so old. Veneers of those days ran two to four times today's thicknesses, and were often applied to curved surfaces. Repairs to broken or missing veneer either involves fully removing the old veneer and replacing with new, much thinner stock. Or, it involves building up the base material where there are missing areas of the old, thicker veneer and then veneering over all. Either way, how do I clamp these weird curves and bends?

Go-bars seem to be the way, but are there other methods? Joe at VeneerSupplies couldn't help much, as he is mostly concerned with flat surfaces. Pianos are too big for vacuum bags.

Also, are there good methods for removing veneers intact? The answer should assume that finish on the veneer has already been removed as far as practical.

Help!

[Paul Atkins]

One word - vacuum. I have veneered all sorts of things with my vacuum bag. curved head boards to tabletops. The whole piano does not need to go into a bag. I have seen boats done with "half bags" or sheets of plastic with a gasket around them made with some type of caulking. Works great. I even used a sandwich bag once. I can't see using anything else.