Hammer Veneering

[Mr Eddie]

Just wanted to close the loop and thank everyone for their help.  I definitely learned a lot.  Maybe it was the shape, but it was s a lot trickier than it looked.  I did want to share a couple of observations.

Heating the veneer hammer did give me more time to work.  But, I was veneering 1" x 12" strips onto an S-curve and it was taking too long for the glue to set up.  I needed the glue to get tacky quicker, so I stopped heating it.  

Also, I used veneer softener, but trying to get the strips onto an S-curve was a challenge until I realized what I was doing wrong.  I was trying to attach the whole piece at once.  I ended up doing them in 3 sections.  First, I applied glue just to the center concave portion and used the veneer hammer to get that laid down firmly.  Then, I applied glue to one of the ends and worked to get that laid down securely.  With 2/3 of the strip glued, I did the other end.  It made the process much quicker and neater.

Finally, my glue seemed to run just like the stuff in the Patrick Edwards video.  Looked like thin maple syrup, but didn't seem to get as stringy as his did.  It worked, but after doing 1/2 of the pieces, the glue jar tipped over into the hot water and I needed to make another batch from scratch.  I used a little less water this time and discovered the stringiness that I was looking for.  It was perfect.  The runnier stuff worked, but the tackier batch make it much quicker and easier.  

I guess the lessons were really all the same.  There's no one best way to do this for every situation.  The cool thing seems to be that the process is flexible enough to let you play with the variables to meet the needs of each project.  I'm definitely ready to try this again.  I definitely have lots of veneer and hid glue left over.

Thanks again for all the advice,

Steve

Steve,
You can use a higher strength glue and it will grab quicker.  That was smart of you to glue up in stages.  I really like using hide glue because it's easy to fix mistakes (that's what I heard - I wouldn't know personally). LOL

Lonnie

[Rick Barton]

Another hammer veneering video just for fun, by Frank Vucolo. IMO its pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOs2QzHxe_8

[Steve Friedman]

Another hammer veneering video just for fun, by Frank Vucolo. IMO its pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOs2QzHxe_8

Makes we want to veneer something.  Like everything else, you start to get the hang of something just as you're finishing the project.

Steve

[Rick Barton]

Makes we want to veneer something.  Like everything else, you start to get the hang of something just as you're finishing the project.

Steve

Pretty much.