Getting Veneer To A Uniform Thickness

[Ken Krawford]

I've just resawn some 7" wide cherry into 50" long veneer slices. My resawing technique was dicey and the slices vary in thickness a bit. I have a wide belt sander and have run them through a few times but am at the stage where the sandpaper on the drum is starting to contact the conveyor belt when I power up the unit. I still need to decrease the thickness of the slices a bit and wondered if there something else I can do. Thanks for your feedback.

[Jerry Wright]

Double stick tape to a backer board?

[Ken Krawford]

Jerry I considered tape. The double stick tape I've got is so sticky that I'm afraid it will split the veneer when I try to remove it.

[David Publicover]

I don’t have a sander so I don’t have direct experience but I’d try putting a couple strips of masking tape on the veneer and the backer board and then gluing the masking tapes together back to back with a few drops of cyanoacrylate glue. The masking tape usually has a less aggressive adhesive so is easier to remove. I’ve used this method in other scenarios successfully.
Good luck

[Carl Beckett]

If you just had sandpaper on the backing board, that might be enough?

[John TenEyck]

Carl's idea might do it. You also could add a stop at the back of the backing board.

John

[Roger Feeley]

Could you go ahead and apply it to the substrate and then sand it? I did that once for some domino sets. I planed some mahogany down to about 1/8”, glued it to thicker maple and then planed the mahogany side to about 1/16”. Then I made the data by drilling through the mahogany with a 1/8” core box bit.

[Mark Rainey]

Try this (https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?286743-boggs-vacuum-box&highlight=) with your planer

[Ken Krawford]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I decreased the size of the double stick tape and after a few swaps of veneer the tape started to lose its stickiness. It even required some downward pressure with the last few pieces.
One piece is significantly thinner than the others but I'm out of material to resaw. Decisions, decisions !