# Veneer hammer



## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

I've been fiddling around with veneering and I wanted to experiment more with hot hide glue and hammered veneer. You can do this without a veneer hammer but it is a little fussy. The veneer hammer is sort of miss-named, the only hammering you do with with the back or corner to tap and listen for voids under the veneer. Otherwise you use the blade like a squeegie as you press and squeeze out excess glue. The result is a vacuum forms and the veneer clamps down with atmospheric pressure. Just like a vacuum bag! Neato. And if you enjoyed finger painting as a kid, this is a similar mess.

The hammer head is cherry with brass strip inserted into a groove. The handle is hububali (snake wood) with a little oak wedge. I realized too late I did the wedge 90 degrees out, it should really be pressing opposite the grain on the head. Oh well. It will be fine. A little oil and a little wax to seal the wood and we are off to the races.

Today I tested out the hammer by making some fancy mahogany and walnut veneered plywood. I've got a couple ideas for small boxes and I wanted some nicer ply for the bottoms. Easier to glue in a bottom than float a panel. :blink:

And I'm fooling around with another idea for a pinhole camera. The body of the camera is 1/2" MDF with the inside sealed with black enamel paint. The outside will be bloodwood (got a good deal on some veneer remnants) and I'll add a banding around the edges to clean it up. Should look neat. Or turn into a giant mess. Time will tell. 

One thing about hammered veneer, it looks like hell until you get around to scraping it down to level the veneer, remove saw and cut marks and any of the excess glue.


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## BigJimAK (Mar 13, 2009)

Sweet, Rob! By wedge 90* out, did you intend to have the wedge expanding lengthwise with the grain instead of across? I haven't done or even read about using wedges in wood.


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

BigJimAK said:


> Sweet, Rob! By wedge 90* out, did you intend to have the wedge expanding lengthwise with the grain instead of across? I haven't done or even read about using wedges in wood.


The wedge as built is going with the grain of the hammer head. This means (in theory) it is also trying to push apart the hammer head. It should have gone perpendicular to the grain of the hammer head. I couldn't just twist the handle because it is shaped and not a cylinder.


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

*Fancy plywood*

OK, here is another neat thing about hot hide glue. It sets quick and drys quick. After a couple hours I can start to work the plywood I made. here they are scraped down and the edges trimmed to clean away the "ugly".

The slick thing about this technique is you can make a plywood to match any project. So if you made a box of lacewood, you could make a plywood bottom with lacewood veneer to match. 

I like this idea because even if you decide to flock or line the inside of a box, because is is a small object people tend to pick them up and look at all sides. Now even the bottom could be made to match the rest of the wood with very little trouble. Just a little wet dog smell. :shout:


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## drasbell (Feb 6, 2009)

Very interesting... Something I have yet to try.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

I used to be NOT a big fan of veneering. Always kinda felt like it was cheating. Glueing up a skinny piece of wood to make it look like something it really wasn't. Wellllllllllll
all that has changed. Veneering can be a most excellent choice for any number of reasons. 

Costs of the raw material. (the wood)
the project itself really doesn't warrant the expense of raw materials
Lack of raw materials
concerns about conserving raw materials (environmentally wasteful)
not wanting to waste raw materials 
etc., etc., etc.......

Lots of ways in which it can be successfully applied as well. One does not have to have
a high end vacuum press to create a excellent bond. I've found it particually useful in applications where wood expansion is a concern. I've become very fond of thick veneers 1/16" to 1/8" (or thin stock) applications. The big advantage as I see it is that down the road the piece can be 'refinished' without the fear of being sanded through.


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

TwoSkies57 said:


> I used to be NOT a big fan of veneering. Always kinda felt like it was cheating. Glueing up a skinny piece of wood to make it look like something it really wasn't. Wellllllllllll
> all that has changed. Veneering can be a most excellent choice for any number of reasons.
> 
> Costs of the raw material. (the wood)
> ...


As you may know, you can buy "thick" veneers on the order of 1/32" or slightly heavier. But most commercial veneer made in the USA is 1/42". Japanese veneers are thinner! And some other countries export thinner stuff.

I'm slowly working my way through the backlog of ideas to get to making a veneer saw. I have access to a couple nice bandsaws but just the idea that I can slice off a 1/16" at my leisure appeals to me. 

Also on the acquisition list is a toothing plane. That too I may make (buy the blade, make the body).


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

I found a local guy here, not more than 10 miles away that I never knew was there. What a veneer gold mine this guy has. thins, thicks, supplies not to even mention he turns out to be just one heck of a nice guy. Gave me the tour of his shop/operation, offered to do some vac. press work for me for nothing. this was even before I purchased some wide curly cherry veneer off of him at a more than reasonable price. I used the cherry for a couple of side panels on a chest of drawers I'm making. cut my own veneers for the drawer fronts (1/8" clairo walnut) and top (3/32nds' pin knot cherry). All done to avoid any expansion issues down the road. I use a lil Craftsman 12" bandsaw which is adequate but not nearly what I'd like to have. 

My biggest problem remains cutting parallel lines so as to avoid tell tell seams. Spending way too much time getting them to where I want em. 

btw... if you ever run into a veneer that is extremely wavey (difficult to lay flat).. try a product out there designed to relax the wood. I used it on the side panels and dang, the stuff worked just as advertised. Fantastic.. Several homemade recipes out there as well that are supposed to do the same thing.


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

TwoSkies57 said:


> I found a local guy here, not more than 10 miles away that I never knew was there. What a veneer gold mine this guy has. thins, thicks, supplies not to even mention he turns out to be just one heck of a nice guy. Gave me the tour of his shop/operation, offered to do some vac. press work for me for nothing. this was even before I purchased some wide curly cherry veneer off of him at a more than reasonable price. I used the cherry for a couple of side panels on a chest of drawers I'm making. cut my own veneers for the drawer fronts (1/8" clairo walnut) and top (3/32nds' pin knot cherry). All done to avoid any expansion issues down the road. I use a lil Craftsman 12" bandsaw which is adequate but not nearly what I'd like to have.
> 
> My biggest problem remains cutting parallel lines so as to avoid tell tell seams. Spending way too much time getting them to where I want em.
> 
> btw... if you ever run into a veneer that is extremely wavey (difficult to lay flat).. try a product out there designed to relax the wood. I used it on the side panels and dang, the stuff worked just as advertised. Fantastic.. Several homemade recipes out there as well that are supposed to do the same thing.



Somewhere I have Marc Adam's formula. Pretty straight forward and if you have a lot to do, it looks like it would be cheaper than the commercial stuff.

The way I've been making "perfect" edges for joining pieces is to first make two cauls from MDF. 1/2 or 3/4 is fine. Just needs to be 3" or 4" longer than the pieces you are going to join and maybe 3" to 4" wide. Wider is better. 

Overcut your pieces. Lay them out as if you were going to join them then fold together like a book. Line up the edges reasonably close and now pinch them between your cauls. Put some 100 grit sand paper on a block and slowly sand it down flush to the cauls. Try very hard not to sand the cauls.

Now when you take it apart you have matched edges. If you were going to be doing marquetry with a lot of straight pieces, you can make up a much thicker sandwich and if you screw the two cauls together it can be run over the jointer, run against a straight bit with bearing on the router table or even the table saw. 

But one or two sheets, you are best using sandpaper on a block or a well tuned block plane.


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