Yesterday, I did the glue up. I don't have any pictures of the process because the glue up is a stressful procedure and I didn't take any time out to take pictures. I mix up the urea formaldehyde glue (it comes as a powder) and spread it on the substrate. I also put a bit on the back of the marquetry to make sure that the glue came up between the elements - so that there wouldn't be any voids between the pieces.
Then my wife and I placed the veneer on the substrate and put the plastic, cloth, and caul on. I use packing tape to hold everything in place so that nothing shifts as we're putting it in the bag.
Here's a picture of the bundle in the vacuum bag with an electric blanket on top. The UF glue is very sensitive to temperature and won't cure at temperatures much below 70 degrees. While it's hotter than that now, extra heat causes the glue to set faster.
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I commented that the glue up process is a high stress time for me. There's just so many things that can go wrong. If I put too little glue, I'll have bubbles - but these can usually be repaired. The veneer can shift during the process of putting the packet together and getting it into the bag. If placement is critical, this can be a fatal flaw. A piece of marquetry can get stuck in the glue and if you then shift the veneer, you can have that piece under another part of the veneer. The UF glue is slow - I usually leave it in press for 6 to 8 hours - so I have to wait a long time to find out if everything went well.
Anyway, after biting my fingernails, the time finally came to take it out of press. This is what it looked like (I've already sprayed some water on it in preparation for removing the veneer tape).
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Here it is with about half the veneer tape removed. When moistened, the veneer tape comes off pretty easily. But there's many layers of tape and the water doesn't penetrate that fast so I have to spray again after I remove each layer. Paul Schurch uses a belt sander to remove the paper tape but I'm too chicken to do that. I'm afraid I'll sand through and ruin the work.
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And here it is with essentially all the veneer tape removed.
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My next step is to separate the doors. First, I trim back the excess veneer at the seam between the top door and the bottom doors - I need to see exactly where it is.
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Then I clamp a straightedge across the work, aligning it with the seam, and use my veneer saw to cut through the veneer.
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Here's the top door cut loose.
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Continued in next post.