Repairing tape damage to veneer

[Andy Pratt]

I've been asked to do a job repairing damaged veneer on a kitchen cabinet. It's my first genuine woodworking job for someone I don't know, so I want to make sure I do a good job, and that I can give the lady an intelligent response when I speak with her.

The only information I have so far is that she "put tape on the side of the cabinet and messed it up, it must have been veneer" I'm assuming from this that some of the veneer peeled away with the tape when she removed it. I haven't worked with veneer much, so I've got two basic questions I wanted to ask:

1) Assuming the damage is more than a couple square inches, what's the best way to repair it. If I replace a portion I'm worried the seams will look obvious, if I replace the whole side I'm worried the cost will be prohibitive (cabinet removal, chance of further damage etc, my lack of tools/experience for veneer work).

2) For any areas that only have tape residue (that I'm not replacing) can I use a standard glue remover, like glue-gone, without discoloring the veneer? Any other products that would work (simple green?).

I haven't worked with veneer much before so I'm open to any advice you might have. I apologize for the lack of details/pics, but those will come after I talk to her, so I'm in a catch 22.

Thanks,
Andy

[Andy Pratt]

I'm supposed to get a hold of this woman today and discuss possible solutions with her, so I would appreciate anything any of you guys could add, even if you're not a veneer expert. I have no idea where to start here so anything is useful.

Is the standard way of repairing veneer to cut out the damaged part with a knife/veneer saw, peel it away and apply as close-matching a replacement piece as you can find? Any tricks on blending the cut lines?

Seems like veneer isn't a popular topic :).

[Mike Henderson]

Repairing veneer is tough to do and make it invisible. The veneer that's there is aged so it's going to be a different color. You'll just have to try to make the best match you can.

Regarding how to cut it to make it least noticable, use curved cuts and try to follow some grain pattern. Tape your new veneer on top of the old veneer and make your cut through both. Then carefully peel off the old veneer. Clean up the old glue so that the new veneer fits flat to the old veneer. You can use yellow glue to glue the new piece in - just don't use too much - you don't want to glue to come through the new veneer. Just put the glue on the substrate and not on the veneer. Clamp a block over the new veneer with plastic or packing tape between the block and the veneer so the block doesn't get glued down if you do have some glue come through (put the glue side of the packing tape on the block - not the veneer).

Sand lightly with maybe 220 grit stuck to a piece of MDF. Finish with whatever was the original finish. This will probably not make an invisible repair but it can be close.

There's some things you can do with retouching stuff to make the grain pattern flow a bit better but I won't go into all that. In a kitchen, the above will probably do the job well enough.

Good luck!

Mike

[Joe Chritz]

A pic is worth a thousand words in a case like this.

Any chance you could just build a new side or maybe hide the spot somehow like that.

I once hid a shelf pin hole that popped through a finished side with a "free" shelf. I had to build two small shelves but it was cheaper and easier than a complete cabinet rebuild.

I don't do much veneer work at all but it isn't always easy to repair and match old finishes.

Joe