Wood Veneer Question

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firewhatfire

firewhatfire

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Has anyone ever tried to wrap veneer around a wooden dowel to make a insert? I once heard it needed to be soaked in water to make it pliable. I have been asked to make a tube but they want it veneered on the inside. Trying to work out a prototype and see if it can be done. I tried just bending the veneer around a rod but it will crack before in place.

Any tips I am not thinking of would be great, thanks in advance

New area for me just checking with you professionals.

Phil
 
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I bought some veneer off ebay for use in segments, I had toyed with the idea of wrapping on a tube, but chickened out
 
Bending implies steam heating the veneer/wood. Try New Yankee Workshop on the PBS website. Norm Abram did a half hour program on steam bending. Make sure you have enough clamps. Small hose clamps would probably work.
 
Soak it in water with glycerine. You can get the glycerine at Michael's in the soap making dept (or if you still have a small drugstore around, they'll probably carry it). You shouldn't need to soak it for very long until it become pliable.

You might even try rolling and entire sheet on itself to keep enough on hand to experiment with.

The hard part will be the edge joint - bevel the first edge and then run it a little long and sand it smooth to the bevel.
 
Several questions to ask. What species, how thick is the veneer, what is the diameter of the dowel? Open pore species - oaks - are more difficult than close pore - maple. Most craft shop veneer is 0.5 mm. Std U.S. plywood veneer is much thicker. Smaller diameter will be more difficult than larger. Then there are two ways to wrap the veneer. One way is for the grain of the veneer to run parallel to the length of the dowel. The other is for the veneer to be at right angles to the length of the dowel. It will be a lot easier if the veneer is parallel to the dowel, harder if at right angles. Either way the veneer should be laminated to a "carrier", - a piece of very thin cotton cloth, such as gauze or cheese cloth, or a special paper called a "fleece" that is permeable and has a high wet strength. A tea bag is made of "fleece" Its very likely that a fleece will not be available in craft shops, so use a pc of thin but strong paper. After choosing the veneer species, paint a thick coat of white glue on the veneer and let it dry at least two hours. When its dry lay the glue side down on the carrier, and put a pc of paper/cloth on top of the dry side of the veneer. Us an ordinary iron set to hot and iron the veneer, thru the paper/cloth. Start in the middle and run the iron the length of the veneer, working your way to the outside from the middle. Check to see that the veneer is firmly laminated to the paper or cloth When the veneer is laminated to the carrier it can be bent around the dowel, using care to bend it slowly. A pc of masking tape on the edges and in the middle will help prevent splitting. Completely covering the outside of the veneer with clear packaging tape before wrapping the veneer around the dowel will help in preventing splitting. Suggest trying to wrap the veneer/carrier around the dowel without glycerine/water solution, which will cause the wood fiber to expand, and then then shrink when the water evaporates. The glycerine may keep the fibers soft enough to prevent cracking, but glycerine will greatly affect the adhesion of the finishing material.
 
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