Large veneer project

[Marc Casebolt]

Hello to all,
I am doing a large (for me) veneer lamination soon, and am fishing for advice. We have a vacuum system, bag, and platens set up. The veneer is pomelle bubinga (some crazy looking grain!), non backed, .5mm thick, in 15" strips. The substrate is .75 apple ply. Over all size is about 3' X 6'. We are going to laminate both sides.
I've done alot of homework on this, and have a pretty good idea how to pull it off, but I'm hoping to hear the voice of experience as to what to whatch out for, tips, traps, etc.
This is a very important project for us, so any insight will be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Marc

[Richard Wolf]

If the grain of the pomelle is open you may suck the glue through the veneer and stain the surface. You may need a glue blocker to stop this.

Richard

[Marc Casebolt]

Richard,
I've been wondering about that. What do you use as a blocker, and and how to glue it to the veneer without creating the same problem?
Thanks for your reply,

Marc

[jerry cousins]

if you're using unibond there is a blocker additive - i've not tried it - just have seen it advertised.
http://www.vacupress.com/veneerglue.htm

jerry

[Richard Wolf]

Jerry beat me with the answer. I do buy all my products from Vacuum Pressing Systems. Jerry has the link. You should be using their glue, Unibond 800 anyway, and you can ask them about the blocker. Most of my vacuum pressing is based on laminating stair stringers and railings.

Richard

[Mike Henderson]

If the grain of the pomelle is open you may suck the glue through the veneer and stain the surface. You may need a glue blocker to stop this.

Richard
I want to echo what Richard said about bubinga being open grain. Before you try to glue up the actual piece, do some test pieces with scrap bubinga and the actual glue and blocker you're going to use so that you can see how much glue you can use before it starts to come through.

The voice of experience: DO NOT do your first glue on the actual pieces!

Mike

[Per Swenson]

Marc,
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=43267&highlight=bubinga
We had a whole lot of squeeze out on this Bubinga project.

But we used aluminum screen instead of a top platten.

The glue came right off with a scraper.

Per

[Earl Kelly]

Marc,

Get some Unibond and dark catalyst. Matches excellent with Waterfall Bubinga. Don't flood your glue on, a max of 1floz to 300 sq in. I always round up to next oz. If you figure that to mix your glue, you should have glue left in the mixing container. Don't worry about the bleedthru, unless the face is solid glue, when it's taken out of the press.

If you haven't veneered before, practice. It's the little things that make all the difference.

Earl

Edit- make sure to do both sides at once, you can wait till the one side firms up. But if you wait for it to fully cure, then do the opposite side your panel will probably warp.