Originally Posted by Kevin Jenness
Kevin, here's the RS WO veneer panel before I vacuum bagged it onto Baltic birch plywood, which I think was two layers of 1/2" that I had glued together several days earlier. I don't recall exactly how long I had it in the vacuum bag, but I know it was several hours. I specifically tried it because it is supposed to bond in only a couple hours, IIRC. Prior to that I had mostly used Plastic Resin Glue and was leaving it in the bag for about 13 hours.
and the table w/o the drawer handle installed.
All was well for a few weeks, then I got a call from the customer that there were "cracks" in the top. Those cracks turned out to be where the veneer opened at all four seams and curled up a good 1/8". No fixing that. I made a new top using Plastic Resin Glue. Ten years later it still looks like new. That table was my first work for that customer. I thought it would be my last, but it turns out she became one of my best customers for many years.
That was my one and only experience with Better Bond. Since I pretty much only use shop sawn veneer, it'll never grace my shop again.
An interesting side note. I had glued the veneer seams with TB II before gluing it to the substrate. Despite that, they opened up. Flash forward several years to my friend who had the same problem on one of his projects. My conclusion is edge gluing offers no real benefit because you can't apply any pressure to the joints as the glue dries, and unclamped TB II, etc. does not result in much strength. I remember that when I remade the top, I did not edge glue the seams.
John
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