thick veneer with a vacuum press?

[James Baker SD]

I have the Joe Woodworker do it yourself vacuum press system and 3 bags of various sizes. So far I have only used it on commercially available 1/40" thick veneers. I would like to try so shop made veneers from my bandsaw, but figure on more like 1/16" thickness (it will be a project subject to impacts and I fear scratching through the commercial thickness veneers).

Anyone know of a reason why the vacuum method of pressing veneers would not work in this case? Thanks.

James

[Mike Henderson]

Should work fine. The only problem is if you have different levels in the veneer. For example, you use thick veneer on part of the panel and thin veneer on another part. Where they come together you may not get a good press on the thin veneer.

But if the whole panel is to be the same thickness veneer, it should work fine.

One other consideration, if your veneer varies in thickness and you use a caul in the press, the thin parts may not get pressed well. What I might do is press without a caul in that case.

Mike

[James Baker SD]

Mike,

the whole project would be covered with the 1/16 veneers that I resawn on the bandsaw and then run thru a drum sander for smoothing and even thickness.

James

[Larry Fox]

Yep - I have done it quite a number of times and it works great. I also have a Joe Woodworker setup (Venturi model).

[Ted Wong]

Been there done that. Works all the time. If you are planning on making your veneer sheet more than one board width wide make sure the joints line up tight down the whole length and vertically so one veneer does not end up proud of the one next to it.

[Robert LaPlaca]

I have successfully used 1/8" and 1/16" thick shop sawn veneers with a vacumn press..

[jerry cousins]

i've been vacuuming for years using homemade 5/64th veneers - no problem with thicker stock. if you find that you do have some uneven veneers you could use a piece of canvas over the whole thing to make up any differences. have also heard of people using the thin underlayment they use for the prefinished - snap in floors and i think there are also some poly material available from companies.
jerry

[Frank Drew]

The pressure inside a vacuum bag system is so great, and, most importantly, so even all the way across the work, that even if you do have minor irregularities they shouldn't be an issue.

Can't say enough good about vacuum veneering; totally revolutionized the practice, IMO, making veneering simpler than simple for shops of any size or level of expertise.

[Jamie Buxton]

I vacuum press bandsawn veneer all the time. In fact, I was doing that yesterday. I generally saw all the veneer at the same time, so they're pretty much the same thickness. I glue the stuff down right as it comes off the bandsaw. I edgejoint the stock before I slice it into veneer, but usually have to rejoint the veneer on what was the exit side of the bandsaw blade. I tape the leaves together with standard brown veneer tape, and glue it down.

[Darnell Hagen]

I've vac bagged a 1/4" lignum sole to a 6/4 cherry plane body.

I've vac bagged a 6 sided fireplace column, 8" to close the birdsmouth joints. Same with the lock miters on a 8/4 table pedestal, those guys were close to 10" x 25".

It's just a clamp.