2nd Planking With Veneer

[Julie Mo]

I'm not happy with the wood Amati supplied for the 2nd planking.  The grain, character and color just don't make my heart skip a beat.  I love pretty woods.  I need my heart to skip a beat.

 

I went looking for something that makes my heart skip a beat and maybe found it. It looks like they stock some very nice veneer woods.  The veneers are 1/42".  That works out to 0.024".  The wood Amati supplies is 0.019" so I get a whole 0.005" to play with.

 

They have some interesting quarter-sawn mahogany I was looking at using in place of what Amati supplied. 

 

Light QS 

 

Ribbon QS

 

Regular QS

 

I'm pretty sure the ribbon is sapele.

 

I have never bought from them but they do take pictures of the actual veneer they have.  All the quality online hardwood stores do that, so that's a good sign.

 

Please comment on the ups, downs and any problems that could be encountered going this route.

 

Thanks,

Julie

[Julie Mo]

Thanks, Brian.

 

I did some looking around on Castello boxwood.  I saw some pieces with interesting tone and grain.  But I didn't find any that was mahogany-like in color with the thicknesses close to what I need for the 2nd planking.  All of my milling tools are for standard size lumber.  There's no way anything I have could mill to the thickness needed for planking.  But I will keep Castello boxwood in mind for future projects.

 

Thanks again.

[jbshan]

On a smaller scale model, the grain should be pretty much invisible to be in scale.  Maple or maybe one of the fruit woods.

[allanyed]

Julie,

 

When the time comes, look at a thickness sander.  It will take strips or narrow sheets down to any thickness would could possibly need and is accurate to a couple thousandths so repeatability is good.  I have a Byrnes and it has served me very well for quite a few years now.  

 

Allan

[Julie Mo]

On a smaller scale model, the grain should be pretty much invisible to be in scale.  Maple or maybe one of the fruit woods.

Good point.  I hadn't thought of the scale of the grain.

 

Julie,

 

When the time comes, look at a thickness sander.  It will take strips or narrow sheets down to any thickness would could possibly need and is accurate to a couple thousandths so repeatability is good.  I have a Byrnes and it has served me very well for quite a few years now.  

 

Allan

I have a thickness sander but it's for full sized lumber.  I've taken it to about 1/8" but that's about it.  All those Byrnes tools look really cool but I'd have to sell my "big version" tools to be able to afford them.  But it would be nice to say goodbye to lugging 4x8 sheets of 3/4" plywood around.

 

I ordered the veneer.  I have a few woodworking projects I plan to use them on.  Hardwood down here is so expensive it makes going into veneer more practical.  I'll see how the veneers scale. 

 

One type I bought was fumed etimoe.  It's almost black.  I was thinking I might be able to use that for the deck caulk.  It scales to about 3/4", which is a little wide but I don't know if that would be noticeable.

 

I've been looking into getting into veneers for years.  This could be my springboard to actually start doing something.

Edited August 27, 2016 by Julie Mo

[Jaager]

If it is Mahogany as the shade you like, take a look at Black Cherry.  It is closed pore and the grain scales better than genuine Mahogany and much better than Lauan and other substitutes.  Woodcraft has a 3 sq ft pack for $10 - although they do not provide the thickness.  Since Black Cherry is not expensive in the States, it may be thicker than the exotic species.  Generally, the characteristic that makes exotic woods popular is contrary to what we want - the grain.

You could also consider Birch or Beech and use a aqueous analine dye to get your desired color.

As for caulking - with scale effect - less is better.  consider Walnut as a color rather than black  and for thickness  scale /2 .

[Modeler12]

Julie Mo, you are electric-frying; full of energy and sparkling.

 

I also have used veneer a lot, but not too much for modeling. The thickness is intriguing but the grain patterns usually are no good. If you can find the wood you want, go for it. I am sure your search on the web should come up with something useful. 

 

PS I am working from my desk which  .. . . . 

[Julie Mo]

Jay, beautiful work!  What substrate did you use to glue the veneer to on your desk?  I'm planning on building a stereo cabinet that can hold the weight of vinyl LPs.  I've been thinking of either sandwiching MDF to 3/4" plywood or making torsion boxes with 1/4" MDF on the top and bottom and hardwood on the sides.  This would be for the shelves.

 

As for the model, when the veneers arrive I'm going to see if any of it has the grain I need to match scale.  Obviously, when seen as a single sheet, the grain would never work, but when cut into 2mm strips, it just may.   

[Modeler12]

Jay, beautiful work!  What substrate did you use to glue the veneer to on your desk?  I'm planning on building a stereo cabinet that can hold the weight of vinyl LPs.  I've been thinking of either sandwiching MDF to 3/4" plywood or making torsion boxes with 1/4" MDF on the top and bottom and hardwood on the sides.  This would be for the shelves.

 

Thanks Julie, the base is 3/4 inch plywood. I used carpenters glue for each piece and a section of pane glass and a lead weight to glue them down. Obviously this took a while.

The desk top sits right in front of me with my computer etc. on a sheet of 1/4 inch glass to protect the veneer.

[Julie Mo]

I've never done anything substantial with veneer.  All the articles I have seen use vacuum bags.  Another big expense. 

 

Thanks for showing me there is another way. 

[Roger Pellett]

If you have a full sized thickness sander you can adapt it to sanding very thin sections. Get a piece of MDF to use as a carrier. Affix the piece that you want to sand to it and run it through. I have a thickness sander that I built and I use this technique to sand small pieces. To attach the piece to the carrier I use several spots of glue at the leading edge of the piece to be sanded. You can debond after sanding with alcohol, or you can sacrifice this small area of the piece. Not elegant but it works.

 

Roger Pellett

[maltbyguy]

try looking at this post

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/9238-using-veneers-for-planking/

Andy

[Carlos Reira]

Mahogany veneer is somewhat prone to splitting, even the real deal mahogany, Swietenia sp. And there's the open pore structure which is heavy on even quarter sliced veneer.  As someone above said, cherry would be easier to deal with in something like a model. Mahogany is a great solid wood for a million things, carves great, pretty strong, doesn't react to humidity much. But unless you're using some antique Cuban mahogany (the only true true mahogany) veneer or crotches or something, I feel like there's better woods. Sapele is even more meh. Once you've seen it up close, you'll know what I mean. They all have their uses. Mostly, the reason all this African lumber gets made into veneer is that the trees are huge and knot free, easy to capitalize into a commodity worth dragging out of the dark continent. Like everywhere, they'll soon be putting embargoes on their diminishing forest products. Remember all that "ramin" wood furniture that was ubiquitous for a few decades. Not any more, it's endangered. A lot of dowels in kits etc. were ramin. It was a very strong wood, about as strong as hickory. Khaya sp. called African mahogany, can yield some amazing veneers, often better than Honduras aka genuine mahogany. Veneer is actually a very cost effective way to process trees as there is no kerf waste and huge amounts of surface area are created. But after a while, especially in large expanses and under a gleaming finish coat, it starts looking like formica.

[Gregory]

I used mahogany veneer on my Mary..

 

 

 

I'm using walnut on my Resolution.

 

This walnut is paper-backed.  Still very thin, but the paper keeps splitting to " 0 " ..

Great for spilling..

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Gregory

[Jaager]

49 minutes ago, Gregory said:

I'm using walnut on my Resolution.

Gregory,

An otherwise excellent planking job is somewhat marred by a species choice that could be replaced by a better one.

Walnut, especially Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) is a much preferred wood for most any full size project.  But for scale work, I stay away from species that are open pore.  If the surface is magnified a bit, it resembles corduroy. The linear grooves do not show on closed pore wood - like Hard Maple, AYC, Black Cherry, Yellow Poplar, any fruitwood.   A dye can get many species having the Walnut shade.  It is to fill the grooves - that sanding sealer was developed.  It is a produce with no purpose if a closed pore species is used.

[Gregory]

I appreciate that, but my modeling goal is more of an art piece rather than an accurate looking miniature ship..

 

Of course, art is in the eye of the beholder..

 

I can't see that  grain from 10 feet away, and my wife never mentioned how out of scale it looks..😉

 

Rather than trying to advance my questionable modeling techniques, I was just responding to Carlos, who revived a four year old discussion..

Edited December 15, 2020 by Gregory