Veneering follies

[Wade Lippman]

I have never veneered before.
My wife wants a backsplash behind the stove. I thought curly maple might look nice. 10 years I bought a pack of curly maple veneer for almost nothing, but have never touched it; thought it might be good to see what curly maple behind the stove might look like.

I cut a sheet of PVC the right size, sprayed with spray adhesive, sprayed the back of the veneer, and stuck the two together according to the directions on the can.
Sanded with 120, and put on a coat of shellac. The veneer puckered a bit, but I was able to push it back.
I then put on a couple coats of water based varnish. It puckered horribly. After it dried I put a board over it and 200 pounds of weights. An hour later it was kinda smushed back into place, but it was terribly wrinkled. Good enough for this test of what curly maple looks like behind the stove, but otherwise trash.

So, why did it pucker so badly and how does one prevent that. It is like the wood expanded and just forced itself off the PVC.

[Jon McElwain]

Not sure which adhesive you used, but the standard 3M 77 spray adhesive is only for porous materials. I'm trying to think of an adhesive that would actually adhere to both PVC and wood - can't think of one. I'm guessing that the adhesive you used only stuck to the wood and not the PVC and thus the pucker and wrinkle.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Unbacked veneer needs to be glued in a press, using a glue that forms a rigid glue line.
And as Jon said, there's really no glue that will stick well to both veneer and PVC, so even trying it in a press won't work well.
You have two options.
1) using a press, use some thin baltic birch or MDF as a substrate, and veneer both sides, You need to vebneer both sides to keep it flat when the veneer expands and contracts.
2) Again, using a press, make up some thin "plywood" from 3 layers of veneer. Then seal both sides with shellac. At this point, you have a reasonable chance of attaching your 3 ply veneer to the PVC with a contact cement.
Method #1 is the far better option.

[Brian Tymchak]

Even if you could get the glue to stick, I would have a concern that PVC behind a stove would expand and contract quite a bit with heat from cooking. That won't work very well with veneer.

[Allan Speers]

Not sure which adhesive you used, but the standard 3M 77 spray adhesive is only for porous materia .


OMG ! light bulb moment !) Last year I made an outside utility table for my Mom, to do art work on. It was just a plywood torsion box, so I decided to cover it in sheet plastic, with aluminum channel edges. I used 3M "extra strength" spray glue.

1 year later and yup, it's puckering all over the place. Ughhh ....

[Wade Lippman]

Yes, it was 3M 77. This wasn't a project, it was just to see what it might look like to know if it was worth pursuing. The PVC was the only thing I had on hand that was the right size.
I planned on doing the real one on plywood.
My wife doesn't care for it, so it was just a learning experience.

So the 77/pvc combination is just not possible.

I don't have a press; would a concrete floor on the bottom, with a heavy board and a couple hundred pounds of weights on top work as one? (should I ever want to try this again)

[Jeffrey Martel]

Yes, it was 3M 77. This wasn't a project, it was just to see what it might look like to know if it was worth pursuing. The PVC was the only thing I had on hand that was the right size.
I planned on doing the real one on plywood.
My wife doesn't care for it, so it was just a learning experience.

So the 77/pvc combination is just not possible.

I don't have a press; would a concrete floor on the bottom, with a heavy board and a couple hundred pounds of weights on top work as one? (should I ever want to try this again)

You could always use hot hide glue and hammer veneer it. Then there's no need for clamps or a press at all. You will need a way to hold the glue at around 140 deg while you apply it, though. Hot plate, crock pot, rice cooker, or something similar.

[Brad Horstkotte]

The weights will work if the piece isn't huge - for larger pieces, you can use the "iron on method".

In addition to the previous fine advice, when using figured veneer, it's best to treat the veneer with veneer softener, which makes the veneer more rubbery / flexible, so the waves in the wood will lay flat when glued.

[roger wiegand]

Hide glue or a vacuum press as described above is best (remember you need to veneer both sides of the substrate, lest it curl--the one on the no-show side doesn't need to be fancy), but also good and more approachable (i.e. low tech and low skill) is to take advantage of the thermoplastic properties of titebond. Brush a coat of original titebond on each mating surface, let it dry 12-24 hours-- dry but not rigid-- then use an iron to bond the veneer to the substrate. Set the iron to a medium heat, higher or lower depending on the thickness of the veneer, not so hot as to scorch. Pieces I made this way 30-some years ago are still going strong.

[Jeffrey Martel]

In addition to the previous fine advice, when using figured veneer, it's best to treat the veneer with veneer softener, which makes the veneer more rubbery / flexible, so the waves in the wood will lay flat when glued.

I haven't found a piece yet that needed anything more than warm water. Even some really buckled and brittle walnut burl. Spray with a bottle of warm water both sides, and set between flat objects and a bunch of newspaper between each piece. Put a bunch of weight on top. Every 12 hours or so, swap out the newspaper until dry.

[David Ragan]

Despite all your suffering with this, veneering can be relatively simple and fun, with a beautiful result.

Do your homework and build some cool furniture with it, or send that unused curly maple to me!