Veneer into drawer fronts in auspice box

[Mike King]

I'm building my take on a Pennsylvania spice box. It is a double box, sized to fill the space vacated by a rear projection tv upon its replacement with an lcd. The drawer fronts will be veneered with walnut burl and that brings the question.

i want to preserve the run of the grain over the two bays of drawers (18 in all!). Would I be best advised to build a panel for the fronts, veneer that, then saw the panel into individual drawer fronts or veneer each drawer front individually?

mike

[Jim Koepke]

I'm building my take on a Pennsylvania spice box. It is a double box, sized to fill the space vacated by a rear projection tv upon its replacement with an lcd. The drawer fronts will be veneered with walnut burl and that brings the question.

i want to preserve the run of the grain over the two bays of drawers (18 in all!). Would I be best advised to build a panel for the fronts, veneer that, then saw the panel into individual drawer fronts or veneer each drawer front individually?

mike

Would it be easy to cut out the drawers without splintering the veneer or causing gaps?

Would it be easier to slice the veneer out to match the drawer faces without gaps in the grain?

I have not done any veneering. Sometimes it is easier to answer a question by knowing the answer to another question.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Another thought came to mind. If there are dividers between the drawers one might want some gaps to make the grain look more natural if it is running at an angle.

jtk

[Chuck Nickerson]

No surprise: it's a trade-off. How large would the all-in-one panel be? Veneering a large panel can be more difficult than veneering several small panels, depending on your equipment and experience. If you have the large panel glued up, what are the odds you can cut out the drawer faces without wood loss due to error?
Do you care how the blades between drawers look?

Choose the path that minimizes the risks given your skill set.

[Mike King]

Thanks. I'm not a newbie, but I've also never veneered before. I do have a slider with scoring (although I've never used scoring as all of my work to date has been solid wood). I'd probably do two panels, 17.25 by 19.75. I personally think I'm much more likely to screw up veneering 18 drawer fronts than 2 panels. And I'm pretty proficient at cutting drawer fronts, although dovetailing 18 drawers without error is a bit daunting...

[Warren Mickley]

I think you want to veneer after making the drawers. You don't want to be worried about hurting the veneer while you are chopping the dovetails and making grooves or rabbets in the drawer fronts. You could veneer just before assembling the drawer or after they are fitted to the openings.

[Keith Mathewson]

How do you intend to apply the veneer

[Mike King]

Hammer veneer.