Question on Project from Latest Woodcraft Magazine

[CubsFan]

I'm making the "Curved Top Box" from the latest Woodcraft magazine (has an arts and crafts rocker on the front) and I'm a bit confused. I'm on page 50, at the point where I'm making the top panel. In step 1 they say "Cover one side of each with a sheet of veneer". Then in step 2 they start to talk about gluing them together. It's not totally clear to me if you veneer each piece of plywood, and then let it dry overnight before continuing, or if it's all one big glue up at once (i.e. do you do step 1-3 and then wait 24 hours, or step 1, wait 24 hours, then step 2-3 and wait again).

Anyone with the magazine have any insight?

Thanks!

[Onboard]

I'm making the "Curved Top Box" from the latest Woodcraft magazine (has an arts and crafts rocker on the front) and I'm a bit confused. I'm on page 50, at the point where I'm making the top panel. In step 1 they say "Cover one side of each with a sheet of veneer". Then in step 2 they start to talk about gluing them together. It's not totally clear to me if you veneer each piece of plywood, and then let it dry overnight before continuing, or if it's all one big glue up at once (i.e. do you do step 1-3 and then wait 24 hours, or step 1, wait 24 hours, then step 2-3 and wait again).

Anyone with the magazine have any insight?

Thanks!

As I read the instructions (step 1) it’s saying to take two sheets of 1/8” plywood cut to rough dimensions and “cover” one side on each sheet with the veneer using the techniques described on page 54 which is really page 56 per the “Gluing and clamping” instructions starting on the right side of page. From there it’s saying that after you’ve done your veneer glue up (you still have two separate veneered pieces at this point) you then glue your finished veneered plywood sheets together (non-veneered side to non-veneered side of course) following the instruction in step 3 on page 50 using the curved form jig. Of course step 2 is for the box bottom and not the top.

[CubsFan]

Cool, thanks for the input. That's the way I was leaning, but I've never done veneering before so I thought maybe I was missing something.

Thanks for the help!

[Onboard]

Cool, thanks for the input. That's the way I was leaning, but I've never done veneering before so I thought maybe I was missing something.

Thanks for the help!

You’re welcome. On thing I noticed about the veneer glue up in the “Gluing and clamping” section (in the “No Fear Veneering” article) is that it’s part of a separate article on doing a “four-way” veneer match panel, and refers to “blue tape” which is for holding the 4 sections together. If you’re not doing a 4 way match, you can ignore all of the “blue-tape” references. I also saw that there is a separate article on “Laying up a 4-way match” starting on page 58. A little confusing, and especially since their “Curved-Top Box” article shows a 4-way matched top. To me, they should have put those 3 articles in the reverse order, with a note that if you’re doing the curved-top box and won’t be doing a 4-way veneer top, then just follow the “Gluing and clamping” section in the one article. But that’s just my opinion.

[CubsFan]

So I veneered one of the panels. One problem is that I must have somehow spilled glue on top of the veneer, so that when I took off the paper that I had up on top of it, a lot of it stuck. Fortunately this seems to be able to be rectified with a cabinet scraper and some sandpaper.

However, in a turn that I didn't expect, the 1/8" plywood panel seems to have become far more rigid. I guess that makes sense, but I don't think it's going to be able to curve to the right curve now. Just testing it with my hands, it doesn't seem to want to bend at all. Interesting development anyway!