Reverse veneer

[Nicholas Lingg]

I just purchased these two pieces of Maple Burl

One is 3/8" thick and one is 1/4" thick I plan to glue them together to make a panel for a Jewel Box lid. I will make them the same thickness. My question is should I put a substrate between them? If so what and what thickness?

[Kevin Jenness]

You can glue them back to back, but stability is not a given. If you want a panel that will maintain its dimensions and be unlikely to check in service, reduce the burls to real veneer thickness, less than 1/8", and glue them to a stable substrate like mdf or plywood. If you can successfully resaw the pieces you can make two panels instead of one. The core thickness depends on your project requirements, probably 1/4" or greater. Epoxy would be a good choice for adhesive as it will fill the evident voids. If you do use epoxy sand the mating surfaces to 80#.

[John Lanciani]

If it were me I'd resaw the 3/8" piece (or the 1/4" piece if I thought it was stable enough and I was feeling bold) and veneer the two pieces onto a filler of appropriate thickness. Save the other piece for the next box.

[Wade Lippman]

You guys would resaw 3/8"?! And a burl with voids?
How?

[John Lanciani]

You guys would resaw 3/8"?! And a burl with voids?
How?

In a word, yes. I've documented my setup several times in other posts but I wouldn't think twice about resawing that piece. I've already spent more time typing this than it would take me to cut it.

ETA, look here, post #11; http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?178546-Veneering-Resawing-questions

[Chris Padilla]

If you don't have a nice set-up and 'pressure feeder/holder' like John designed and/or haven't resawn too much, I would think a bit or practice more before resawing something like that. It is quite thin and prone to moving out of planar on you in a whim and BAM, broken heart. :)

If you glue the 3/8" burl to a substrate (MDF or Plywood...a nice piece of plywood like Birch, for example), THEN you probably have a good chance at resawing it as it'll be less inclined to bend on you but then you need to have a good, thin, sharp blade and your bandsaw dialed/tuned in tight. Once resawn on a substrate, you can then glue the other burl to the other side of the substrate and be good to go and still have a nice piece of burl for the future.

In fact, you might carry this a bit further and sandwich the burl between two substrates and then split it that way. Nothing will move on you that way but there is little room for error.

Good Luck! Beautiful pieces!