Mahogany plywood or veneer?

[Brian Penning]

Which is better and why for a large dining room table? Client wants mahogany in this case.
Purchase 3/4 ply OR glue veneer to a substrate?

[Johnny Kleso]

If you can find a good price on solid stock it may save you a lot of time edging unless its just a square top..

I know I have got some awesome deals on veneer @eBay and just seen some ribboned mahogany these this weekend..

Buy> Business & Industrial> Manufacturing & Metalworking> Woodworking> Lumber & Veneer>

[David DeCristoforo]

Unless you find a really good "architectural grade" plywood, you are unlikely to find anything really exciting. Laying up the veneer yourself will open a world of possibilities. But, as Johnny pointed out you might be better off looking at making up a solid wood top.

[Jamie Buxton]

Let's be clear... You're deciding between plywood already covered with mahogany veneer by a manufacturer, or you covering some other piece of plywood with mahogany veneer. The result is the same: mahogany veneer over plywood.

Doing your own veneering offers more design options. For instance, you may be able to find veneer with unusual figure or grain, while pre-veneered plywood is often deliberately neutral. However, you need equipment and skill to do your own veneering. I strongly recommend a vacuum veneer press. That'll set you back several hundred bucks, even if you assemble it yourself.

[Brian Penning]

Thanks gents,
I like the idea of solid mahogany(and so does the client) but this is replacing a 3/4" veneered top on an extension table.
I can't see getting glued-up 3/4" thick large panels(3' X 4') to stay nice and flat. It'd be one of my biggest panels I've done.

[Larry Rasmussen]

Is the table kind of plain jane or utilitarian? Look and the original and look at available plywood. Additionally you might find that really wonderful piece of plywood that will just step up.

For veneer on a 3'X4' piece you could also use several pieces of MDF and cauls to do a manual press. I have several of the cauls from Bowclamp that can be checked out on the Manufacturers forum at the Creek here. Have done a 2X3 veneer glue up using 3 pieces MDF on top of the venneer then pressed down with 3 cauls. Part of the success on this approach is having a really flat table to start with for the base.

Hope that was helpful, it is way early before work and I'm sleepin and typin. Larry R, Seattle

[Peter Quinn]

Most of the commercial mahogany plywood I've worked with has a veneer so thin I would consider it a not repairable surface once constructed as sanding is nearly impossible. This may prove to be a bad feature in a working table top. Solid wood is always my first choice, but a thicker shop sawn or speciality cut veneer would be a close second. Then you have a little thickness to work with in the future.

Do you have access to a lumber core plywood source as a backer? Might offer good stability and more strength over that span, depending on design. I'd guess renting time on a wide belt would be money well spent for this project.

[Peter Quinn]

Brian, I thought of this link after posting. Berkshire Veneer (berkshireveneer.com) advertises 'thick' traditional veneer's in numerous species and stocks many flitches. They seem willing to accommodate special orders and may be able to supply material that is a close match. No affiliation with them, but they are local to me. I'm sure there are other regional firms capable of supplying materials appropriate for a table top if it is beyond the capacity of your shop to produce as it largely is for mine.

Don't know the budget of the project but at the cabinet shop where I worked we farmed out a series of figured mahogany and big leaf maple panels for a coffered ceiling to a company in Oakland CA., may have been called California Speciality Veneers? Don't remember, but the work was top notch. We weren't setup to produce the volume needed and the investment to get set up out weighed the benefits given the infrequency of the demand for such things in our case. Might be another possibility?

[Frank Drew]

Brian

I don't think commercial plywood is suitable for a reasonably upper end dining table, for the reasons given (the veneer is way too thin, the edging would always show as such, etc.). There's also no guarantee that the plywood will arrive, or stay, flat.

There's a vastly greater variety of veneer to choose from than solid, but in a small shop veneering panels is almost always much more work than using solid. I think you'd have trouble finding a 3' wide flitch, so there will be at least one joint to create, and that's a lot trickier in veneer than solid.

Mahogany is actually pretty agreeable, and well dried stuff, brought into your shop ahead of time to acclimate to an indoor environment, shouldn't give you much trouble with movement or not staying flat.