gluing burl veneer

[Dante]

My dad was a professional woodworker for many years and recently passed away.  While he taught me a bit when I was young he didn't teach me everything he knew!  I did a few things in high school and college but have not done anything in decades. 

A few months ago I got back into woodworking and found a lot of elm burl veneer from 1960 in his workshop.  I know its 1960 because for some reason the veneer was backed with newspapers! 

As you can imagine, even though the veneer was in a box to keep it flat, it was very dry and very warped.  I bought some veneer softener and kept it pressed for several weeks.  The result was flexible, soft, and flat veneer.  That was in February. 

I now want to use the veneer and while it is still flat it is not as flexible (I wonder if this is why I am having the problem I am about to describe)?

I am veneering a cabinet with the elm burl starting with the legs (1.5 inches wide by 34 inches long). 

I cut and taped the veneer edges with blue painters tape which was not very strong.  I wasn't concerned about keeping the pieces together because the gluing technique I used was to use yellow glue on both the cabinet and veneer, let it dry and then use an iron after it dries.  I figured once I place it on the cabinet I could move the veneer around before ironing it in place.

While it glued ok, after it cooled, the edges separated.  It's not that bad and can easily fix it but I cant have this happen when I glue the doors, sides, or top!

Any ideas why this happened and what I can do to prevent this?  My thoughts are either:

1.  the blue tape didn't provide enough binding power to keep the pieces together (for the doors I used the traditional veneer tape for the entire length of the seam).

2.  the veneer is too dry.  maybe I should soften it again before gluing?

3.  the iron was too hot so when it cooled, it shrunk more than if I used a cooler setting?

Thank you for any assistance you can provide.  The cabinet came out great and I don't want to ruin it by a less than perfect veneer job!

[wdwerker]

Veneer tape is what you should use at the seams. It's cheap , you wipe the back with a damp rag or sponge to activate the glue. Licking it works but the taste is horrible. With the iron on & yellow glue approach a wooden scrap shaped like a squeegee is used to keep rubbing each section after ironing to keep it flat as is cools. You can remove the veneer tape with a card scraper and very cautious moistening with a damp rag ( not wet ! ).

[Dante]

Ok, thank you.  So basically using the true veneer tape (as I did in the attached photos) should solve the problem I had when I used the blue painters tape instead?  I'm tempted to experiment on a scrap piece to make sure the seams don't separate using the ironing method.

 

Do you think I should re-soften before gluing?

 

 

[wdwerker]

Re softening & re flattening is a good idea. Experiment with the  iron temperature, too hot takes a long time to cool which keeps you rubbing longer. 

Practicing w scraps is always a good idea . Then you can use them to practice trimming, sanding, filling cracks and finishing . So practice on sufficient quantity to be able to make mistakes at each step of the process. 

[Ronn W]

If you follew the iron with a piece of 3/4" Melamine (actully, plain mdf would work, too) - I mean right behind the iron.  IT will act as a heat sink and cool the glue right away so that any stress in the veneer will not be able to creat gaps.  You have no holding power intil the glue is cool.

I assemble veneer with the show side down using blue tape and the side that will be hidden.  When I am satisfied I flip the show side up and apply the veneer tape.

If you wnat to go a (optional) step farther you can then go back to the blue tape side, remove the tape and rub glue into the joints with something like the round,smooth handle of an old screwdriver.  You can rub pretty hard.  this will not only glue the 2 pieces of veneer together but the moisture from this glue will tend to expand the wood on each side of a joint and help close any tiny gaps.  Then put blue tape over the joint while the glue is stil wet and leave unitl the glue dries.   Finally remove the blue tap and your ready.  I use this optional step as added insurance when book matching to make my joints invisible.

I have found the a $20 clothes steamer is great for removing the veneeer tape.  Just don't over do it.

Good luck.

[Tom King]

I wonder if hot hide glue wouldn't be better in this situation that yellow glue.   I've never used anything but hot hide glue for veneer, so have no experience using pva glue to draw from.

[Dante]

I like the suggestions you’ve given me.  I would like to try the hot glue technique but I’ve never done that before. Perhaps I can experiment first and see how it turns out. I really don’t want to mess up the cabinet because this veneer really is beautiful!  Will update after the first gluing!

[Tom King]

One good thing about hide glue is that if something doesn't go exactly right, you can redo it.   Search for "wax warmer" on ebay, and you can get a heater for hide glue for less than 20 bucks that works as good as the expensive ones.