Substitutes for wood veneers...?

[Doug Rasmussen]

Are there reasonable substitutes for wood veneers, things like heavy paper, etc? Consistent thickness, readily available and a variety of colors are my preferences.

Something with a stiffness like heavy card stock would ideal. Thin, but stiff enough that it could be inserted into a narrow saw kerf.

I've seen pictures of segmented turnings mentioning dyed cloth. In that case I assume the glue penetrated through the fabric reaching the solid wood on both sides. For my uses cloth would not be stiff enough to insert into a glue filled kerf.

[Adam Herman]

what are the properties of wood veneer that you are worried about?

what about plastic laminate like Formica? lots of colors, easy to order and thin/stiff

[Mel Fulks]

I think Adam has a good idea there. But he will need the solid color all the way thru stuff. Can't remember the name.

[brian zawatsky]

I think Adam has a good idea there. But he will need the solid color all the way thru stuff. Can't remember the name.

Color Core

[Doug Rasmussen]

Thanks for the replies.

Fromica might be too thick, it's also not readily available, meaning I can't go to a store and buy one square foot of red, etc.. Do common wood glues work with it?

It's not the properties of veneer that's the problem. It's ready availability (price) in brilliant colors. My local Woodcraft has an odd assortment of veneers in packages of the most uninteresting, bland stuff at fifty some bucks . Maybe I should just buy one their packs and dye it myself.

[Brett Luna]

You might also check out some of the liner materials used by knife makers, such as vulcanized fiber "fish paper". If you want to go the DIY route, I'd also consider making my own micarta.

[Marvin Hasenak]

Get some maple veneer and some Fiebings leather dye, the alcohol based not the oil based dye. You can make you own colored veneer or even mix and match colors for a custom color.

But the easiest way would be go to the knife makers catalogs and see what they have in the liner material section. Most will probably not be wood, but will be good for glue ups.

I have also used colored construction paper for real thin accents on small items. On big stuff, construction paper is too thin unless you glue several sheets of paper together. Never did like to glue several sheets together, lot of work and the dyed veneer works better.

[Aaron Craven]

Just a thought, but wouldn't a glue joint made with paper in the middle be pretty fragile? I mean, that's one of the methods for creating a temporary glue block, right?

[Mel Fulks]

If you take the path of dyeing veneer remember most of it now is so thin. You might want to search specifying the desired thickness. There is some of the old 1/28 around and ads for specialty thicknesses like 1/16

[Ken Andersen]

Have a look at this
http://www.segmentedwoodturners.org/forum/showthread.php?1613-Experiment-Update

[Reed Gray]

I guess it depends on kerf size. Places that have model plane supplies carry plywood down to 1/16 inch. I have heard of plastic pick guards for guitars being used, and I think Grizzly had the biggest variety. Slice your own veneers, depending on how thick or thin you want them and use different colors and glue them together....

robo hippy

[Brian Brown]

Try this.

dubdubdub.roarockit.com/skateboard-building/veneer/other/color-veneer-sampler/#.V5L3dzdlm2x

These are left overs from making skateboards.

[Bill Bulloch]

I have used Poster Board (Red, White & Green) as veneer spacers in segmented Christmas Ornaments. It worked out all right on these small projects. I have not tried it on anything larger though.

[Marvin Hasenak]

Try this.

dubdubdub.roarockit.com/skateboard-building/veneer/other/color-veneer-sampler/#.V5L3dzdlm2x

These are left overs from making skateboards.


One of the best deals I have seen. These are 12x48 sheets, and they have all kinds of colors and plain. here is a better link http://www.roarockit.com/veneer-1/

[Marvin Hasenak]

Just a thought, but wouldn't a glue joint made with paper in the middle be pretty fragile? I mean, that's one of the methods for creating a temporary glue block, right?

Construction paper is made out of wood pulp. I have glued it like I glue up wood for years as accent lines in game calls. I have never had one come back to me. Those that I have kept have never split on me. It is possible that they could, but I haven't experienced it.

[Brian Brown]

The only problem I see with the Roarocket stuff, is that it is 1/16 thick, a little more than twice as thick as most veneer used by woodturners. In my case, I often laminate two sheets of veneer together to get a little more thickness anyway. Also their shipping for laminates is strange. They won't ship just the veneers unless you order a laminate pack(???), because of the potential to break. I would think if someone bought a few laminate sheets, and they were packed carefully, there would be no problem. If anyone orders here, let us know how it worked out, and how you like their veneer.

[Doug Rasmussen]

Thanks for all the replies. And, I'm interested to know about the use of heavy paper.

I did find some test material I had on hand. Green plastic engraving stock 1/16" thick. Interesting effect with the green and white.

Besides being thicker than I want wood glue doesn't hold it. I used CA glue which I'm not totally sure holds very well either.

It turns out my local Rockler does have color dyed veneer in 3 square foot packs. They can't tell me the thickness though, only that it's probably not exactly 1/32" thickness. I'll have to find a small jewelers saw blade to match whatever the thickness is.