Veneer glues

[David Berkowitz]

I've been vacuum laminating veneers of .3 and .6mm for purflings (multiple line marquetry) on my guitars, using polyurethane glue. For the most part this has worked well. When the glue manufacturers switched to a less viscous formulation, I found I got a lot more bleed through which led to occasional whisper thin white glue lines when different layups were combined.

So the question I have is what kind of veneer glue would you recommend for laying up multiple laminations, say as many as 3-4 veneers, that will eventually get bent on a hot pipe, or in the case of bindings (the decorative edging set into the sides of guitars), bent and kept at 310F for 30 minutes in order to have the wood (in my case ebony) set the bend. The glue needs to be heat resistant, so as the veneer lines particularly on bindings do not release and ripple as they're bent. If there's a solution that's water free, I'd be interested in that as it won't have the propensity to cause the veneers to curl when I'm trying to get them into the bag.

Thanks in advance,

David

[Chris Padilla]

veneersupplies.com has a veneer glue called Better Bonds (among others...search around) but I do not know how appropriate it would be for your situation. I used it quite a bit but to veneer 1/16" shopcut veneers to MDF...all flat panels. It dries very rigid and I don't know how it would bend in your application. He offers it in 3 colors which might be helpful for you.

[David Berkowitz]

Chris, thank you for your reply. It was actually Joe from Veneer Supplies who sent me here to ask for recommendations.

[John Coloccia]

.3 and .6mm are thin enough that they should bend without any heat. They do for me, at any rate. It's funny you should post this now. I just finished installing (about 20 minutes ago) purfling around a 4" diameter soundhole, made out of 1/36" (that's about .025, or .6mm) maple strips (one dyed black). I put them in dry, and then put a bit of thin super glue on the sides and on top, and that's it.

The trick is learning how to deal with several binding strips all at the same time. The wood is a ton easier to deal with than plastic because it's not nearly as floppy.

I guess that's not really helpful re: your question, but I thought I'd just share what I do.

[David Berkowitz]

John, I install with CA too, but this is about laying up laminations for multi line purflings and cutting them into strips as well as making bindings with the side purflings already applied.