Gluing veneer together

[Jay Jolliffe]

I need to make some thicker veneer out of thin. I was told to glue multiple layers to get what I want. What glue would I want to use ?

[Jamie Buxton]

Veneer is just thin wood, and you can use standard wood glue. The challenge is that you must get the veneer layers close together while the glue cures. And you must get it close together everywhere. Veneer is so floppy that if you clamp it tightly in one place, it can still be not close an inch or two away. That's why vacuum veneer presses work so well. They clamp everywhere.

Thicker veneer is available from some suppliers. Check www.certainlywood.com and http://wood-veneers.com/ For instance http://www.certainlywood.com/woodmenu2.cfm?p=7

[Jay Jolliffe]

Thanks Jamie...I have a vacuum press & I'm using it right now. I called certainly wood & asked them. The veneer is from them also. They had some thick veneer but not it the color I wanted....

[Jay Jolliffe]

I guess it doesn't work for dyed veneer. That just pealed apart with little effort. The other that wasn't died worked great. Live & learn. Too bad it's holding me up from finishing the job. Have to think of something else I guess...

[Mike Henderson]

I've glued lots of dyed veneer and never had it pull off. I'd check your glue before I'd blame the veneer. Take a two small pieces of your dyed veneer and glue them together with something like Titebond. Clamp with something like mdf cauls and put waxed paper between the cauls and your veneer. Let set until you're sure the glue is cured. If the glue is good, you should have a bond such that the veneer cannot be separated. If the veneer peels apart, try it again with a different glue, perhaps epoxy. If that peels apart, then I'd start to wonder about the veneer.

I assume this is standard dyed veneer, no backing.

Mike

[Jay Jolliffe]

The veneer was from Certainly Wood. It was dyed black. The glue worked fine on the non dyed veneer. It's also a new bottle of Titebond . I rolled a coat on both pieces then put them in a vacuum bag press for 2 hrs let them dry for another hr & could pull the dyed ones apart. I suppose I can't try gluing them again since they already have dried glue on them. I'm doing a compass rose from your tutorial...Great job on the tutorial Mike. I made 3 in different sizes as practice, now I want to make the one that I have to inlay into a cabinet door.

[Mike Henderson]

I've used quite a bit of that black dyed veneer from Certainly Wood. Try gluing some of the veneer to a substrate such as MDF and see what happens. It's strange that it won't glue to itself. Is the glue peeling off of one piece of veneer, or is there glue on both pieces when you separate them? If there's glue on both pieces, then the glue itself is the problem. Since the veneer is so thin, it may be that the glue is not curing like it would on thicker pieces of wood. The wood would absorb the water in the glue, causing the glue to set up. Maybe you'll need to let the two pieces of veneer dry longer so the moisture gets out of the glue.

If nothing else works, get some urea formaldehyde glue and let it set up overnight. You can sure tell when UF glue is set - it gets hard as a rock.

And thanks for the kind words about the tutorial.

Mike