Bandsaw Your Own Veneer

Bandsaw

Your

Own

Veneer

Tips for smooth

slicing in any kind

of wood

BY TIMOTHY

C O L E M A N

t is a wonder to me that I can take a

piece of solid wood, with its unforgiv-

ing properties of seasonal movement,

resaw it into veneer and glue it to a stable

substrate, and it will suddenly behave quite

demurely. Much of my work consists of

decorative cabinets and tables, and on the

broad surfaces of these pieces veneer real-

ly shines. Most often, I cut my own veneer.

Shop-sawn veneer gives me the stability of

commercial veneer and a measure of flexi-

bility that is missing from its commercial

cousin. It lets me mix solid wood and ve-

neer from the same stock, offers more in-

tegrity on an exposed edge and has

enough thickness that I can work the sur-

face as if it were solid wood. I can hand-

plane the material or do shallow carving or

sculpting on the surface. Building with sol-

id wood may be faster than using band-

sawn veneer, but I can seldom resist the

Photos, except where noted: Jonathan Binzen

Keep it

clean. For best track-

ing, brush the bandsaw's tires

regularly and start a veneer-

cutting job with a fresh blade.

Fine-tuning. Raise the upper

guides to cutting height before

setting the bearings. The roller

bearings should be set just aft

of the blade's gullets.

High fence provides full sup-

port. The auxiliary fence

should be at least as high as

the veneer will be wide.

magic of sawing a board into thin slices

and spreading it out over the surfaces of a

piece of furniture.

There are times when I use commercial

veneer. The exotic figure and wide dimen-

sions of the material can be an advantage.

In recent years, however, the standard

thickness of commercial veneer has gotten

thinner and thinner. There is no margin for

error when working with this material, and

I am on pins and needles until the piece

has a finish on it. When I saw solid stock in-

to veneer myself, I have no such worries.

Bandsaw: the essential veneer tool

At the heart of sawing your own veneer is

the bandsaw. If yours is running correctly,

cutting veneer will be a pleasure. If not,

prepare for pain. I have spent many hours

fine-tuning my bandsaw. I have replaced

the tires on the wheels, replaced the origi-

nal guides with Carter roller-bearing

guides and modified the factory-supplied

fence so that it can pivot a few degrees,

which allows me to adjust for the drift of

the blade. Just about any bandsaw careful-

ly tuned can be used for sawing veneer. I

use a 24-in. European saw, and it works

very well. A smaller saw will work, but its

limitation will be in the width of the stock it

will cut. If needed, you can always rip the

plank into narrower pieces, resaw it and

rejoin the veneers edge to edge.

I typically use silicon-carbide hook-tooth

blades, ½ in. or ¾ in. wide. The teeth are set

in a raker-5 pattern, which means they al-

ternate left, right, left, right and then have

an unset raker tooth. Bimetal blades re-

portedly work well on abrasive woods.

However, because they are designed for

cutting metal at slower speeds and are

more than twice the price of standard

blades, I do not use them.

Bandsaw tune-up and

setup

—Always go

over the bandsaw from top to bottom be-

fore starting. Use a fresh blade and clean

the tires with a stiff nylon brush. Screw an

auxiliary fence of medium-density fiber-

board (MDF) or melamine to the factory

fence. The auxiliary fence provides the

START WITH AFRESH BLADE

AND A WELL-TUNED BANDSAW

ALIGN THE FENCE TO THE BLADE'S DRIFT

Get the

drift? To cut veneer accurately, the

fence must be set to the natural cutting angle,

or drift, of the blade. Find the drift angle by cut-

ting freehand along a line drawn parallel to the

edge of a scrap. Stop cutting after 8 in. or so.

Bevel records the drift angle. With one hand,

keep the scrap from shifting. With the other,

use a bevel gauge to measure the angle be-

tween the scrap and the front of the saw table.

Angle the fence. Use the bevel gauge to set

the auxiliary fence to the scrap's cutting angle.

height necessary to support veneer stock,

which can be up to 10 in. wide. It is critical

that this fence be smooth and flat.

I readjust the guides every time I cut ve-

neer. Begin by loosening and backing off

all of the guides. Then raise the post for the

upper set of guides, locking it in at-the cor-

rect height for cutting the veneer. Set the

bearing guides to within a dollar bill's

thickness from the blade and pull them for-

ward until they are just behind the blade's

gullets. Then set the thrust bearing so there

is no more than a small space between it

and the back of the blade.

Now set the fence to accommodate the

drift of the blade (see the photos above). If

this step is skipped or done improperly,

you can be certain to have a bad day at the

veneer-cutting shop. Begin with a piece of

scrap about 2 ft. long. Mark a pencil line

parallel to one long edge. Then feed the

scrap into the blade freehand, cutting right

on the line for about 6 in. or 8 in. Stop

cutting and hold the scrap in place. Then

place the body of a bevel gauge against

the front edge of the bandsaw table and

push the gauge's blade against the scrap.

Lock the bevel gauge to record the angle at

which this blade wants to cut—the drift of

the blade.

Now bring the fence over to within a ve-

neer's thickness of the blade, using the

bevel gauge to establish the proper fence

angle. At this point, I adjust the bar my

fence rides on until the fence is at the drift

angle. If you don't have a sliding fence or

one that can be modified to pivot, you can

cut veneer just as well with a shopmade,

clamped-on fence.

To check the drift angle, run a scrap

through the saw while holding it against

the fence. If the scrap pulls away from the

fence or requires excessive force to feed,

check the drift setting again.

Kerf

test.

To cut

uniform

sheets

veneer,

the

fence must be parallel with the blade. If the

two are not parallel (as in the text), tilt the

table until they are.

Finally, check that the blade is parallel to

the fence. Using your veneer plank or a

wide piece of scrap, cut a kerf about 1/16 in.

deep (see the photo below). If the cut is off

from top to bottom, adjust the tilt of the

table to correct it. Don't worry about

whether or not the blade is square to the

table. When the blade and fence are paral-

lel, it won't matter if the table is slightly out

of square with the blade.

Preparing the plank

To prepare a plank for being sawn into ve-

neer, mill both faces and both edges. When

you cut the plank to length, add at least

several inches to the longest veneers that

you'll need. You may need the extra length

later, if you put the veneers through the

planer. When you cut the plank to width,

however, stay as close as possible to the

finished width of the veneer. If you plan to

make lipping or molding or other solid

wood parts to match the veneer, cut them

from the plank before you rip the plank to

the veneer width. When you are ready

to cut the veneers, mark a triangle on the

end or edge of the plank so that the sliced

veneers can easily be restacked in order.

At the same time you are machining your

plank for the show veneer, prepare mater-

ial to use as a backer on the veneered pan-

els. To keep the panels balanced, it is

SLOW AND STEADY RESAWING

A little off the

sides. To make ve-

neered panels with

perfectly matched

edge-banding, rip

strips off each side of

the plank before slic-

ing it into veneer.

Support ahead of

the cut. Use a slow,

steady feed rate

keeping the plank

tight to the fence with

ahead of the cut.

Go to the

back of

the bandsaw. It is

safest to move

pull the plank

through the end of

the

cut.

Keep an eye on the

saw marks. If the

marks from the band-

saw are even across

the width of the piece,

the cutting is going

well. If the marks are

heavier or lighter at

the middle, the blade

is bowing in the cut.

Try a slower feed rate

or a sharper blade.

Smoothing between

slices. Joint or plane

the sawn face of the

plank after every

when the plank is still

thick, switch to the

when the plank ap-

A piece of melamine

laid across the plan-

er's bed rollers keeps

the thin material from

getting chewed.

Slicing it fine.

It is

dangerous to have

your fingers near the

blade when slicing

the last sheets of ve-

neer. Use a block to

support the cut.

important that this backer material be the

same thickness as the face veneer and of a

compatible species.

Slicing the veneer

Set the fence for the desired veneer thick-

six leaves of veneer from a 4/4 board. Feed

the wood slowly and continuously, sup-

porting the work just in front of the cut.

Develop the habit of pushing the stock

through the end of the cut with your hand

on the face of the board rather than behind

it. And try to develop a feel for the rate

that the blade wants to take the stock.

When the blade is cutting just what it can

handle, it will barely touch the guide bear-

ings. And when the blade is tracking prop-

erly in the cut, the back edge of the blade

will be centered in the kerf. If you are cut-

ting a lot of material, it is likely that the feed

rate will slow as the blade begins to dull.

When the plank gets thin, be extra care-

ful not to run your hand beside the blade. If

the stock tapers in its thickness at all, there

is potential for the blade to run out the side

of the board. For safety, when I'm cutting

the last few slices of veneer in a plank, I

keep my hands well away from the blade

by moving to the outfeed side of the table

and pulling the material through the end of

the cut. I use a block of scrap to keep the

workpiece tight to the fence.

After cutting each slice of veneer, make a

trip to the jointer and smooth the sawn face

of the plank. I have my jointer set up just to

when slicing veneer,

pressure applied just

around to the outfeed

slice. Use the jointer

planer for safety

proaches ½ in. or so.

ness. I shoot for /16 in., and I can usually get

side of the saw and

THICK VENEER PLANES EASILY

Shoot the edges.

A stroke or two with a

jointer plane prepares the veneers to be

joined edge to edge.

Smoothing after sawing. Double-stick tape keeps a sheet of veneer still for a quick smoothing with

handplanes. At

in. thick, the veneer can be planed and worked like solid wood.

Taping under way. Short pieces of veneer

tape are moistened and stretched across

the joint; when they dry, they pull the joint

tight A lengthwise strip of tape reinforces

the temporary joint.

the right of the bandsaw to make this pro-

cedure easy. Don't worry about removing

all traces of the bandsaw. Jointing enough

to remove most of the bandsaw marks will

be more than sufficient for a good glue

joint. And the bandsaw marks that remain

will tell you how you are cutting. Too fast a

feed rate will often show up as bandsaw

marks that are deeper or shallower in the

middle of the board than at the edges, be-

cause the blade is distorting during the cut.

As the plank becomes thinner, it will not be

practical to joint the face. Instead I run it

through the planer between slices.

Keep the veneer pieces in order as they

come off the saw and cover them with a

board to keep them from cupping. On the

last cut I am sometimes splitting the board

into two equal veneer slices. This is a very

satisfying way to complete the cutting.

Surfacing the sheets of veneer

A well-bandsawn surface is quite accept-

able to glue down, but if the thickness of

the veneer varies much, it will have to be

surfaced. There are several ways to do this.

If the pieces are manageable in size and

number, they can be smoothed with a

handplane. To hold the veneer still while

you are planing, use a piece of MDF with a

lip at the end to serve as a stop, or hold the

veneer down with very thin, double-sided

tape. Don't use too much tape—just a few

small pieces—or it will be impossible to get

up. A scraper or scraper plane can also be

used for this type of surfacing.

Often I will surface the veneer by run-

ning it through the planer. But this proce-

dure is not for the fainthearted. I have seen

beautiful leaves of veneer go in one end of

the planer and come out as crumbs. Check

and make adjustments on the planer as

carefully as you did on the bandsaw. Pay

particular attention to the setting of the

pressure bar. I use a piece of melamine to

cover the bed rollers to keep the veneer

from bending up into the cutterhead. Do

not wax this surface because it will transfer

to the surface of the veneer.

Use a slow feed rate and sneak up on the

thickness very slowly. Feed the pieces one

at a time, and be sure that one piece comes

out before the next goes in to prevent one

from riding up on another. If a piece begins

to chip, stop immediately. Sometimes the

failure is a result of feed rate or feed direc-

tion and can be solved by reversing the

pieces. Sometimes the ends of a slice are

damaged in the planer, but the rest of the

piece is fine. Hence the need for extra

length. It is difficult to predict how a batch

of veneer will fare in the planer, so it is al-

ways good to cut a couple of extra leaves

of veneer so that one can be a test piece.

A third alternative for surfacing shop-

sawn veneer is an abrasive planer or wide-

belt sander. These work very well on

veneer, and it is often possible to rent time

on one of these machines as more shops

are using them. Before committing your

precious veneer to be sanded, however,

make sure that the operator knows what

you are after and that the machine can han-

dle the job. I'd rather ruin the material my-

self than pay someone to ruin it for me.

Working with shop-sawn veneer

Now the anxious moments are behind, and

the fun begins. If you are laying up broad

surfaces from two or more leaves of

veneer, play around with different combi-

nations. You might try slip-matches, book-

matches or reverse matches.

I edge-joint the veneer by lifting it off the

surface of the bench on a piece of ply-

wood and shooting the edges with a hand-

plane. I make sure the joint is tight along its

entire length.

Some people edge-glue adjacent pieces

of shop-sawn veneer before gluing them to

the substrate. This works fine, but I don't

think it is necessary. I simply hold the

unglued joint together with veneer tape

the way I would with commercial veneer. I

use a heavy-weight tape, running it across

the joint in several places, then down the

entire length of the joint. The veneer tape

goes on wet and shrinks slightly as it dries,

pulling the joint tight.

On a typical panel, I glue the face veneer

and backing veneer at the same time. I roll

yellow glue onto the substrate, put the ve-

neers in place and slide the whole package

into the vacuum press. Before I had a vac-

uum press, I used cauls and deep-reach

clamps to accomplish the glue-up, and that

worked perfectly well, too. The veneer

tape comes off easily with a hand scraper

after the panel comes out of the press.

THE VERSATILITY OF VENEER

Marquetry. The drawer fronts

and the upper cabinet face

frame of this hutch are mar-

quetry compositions in shop-cut

maple and mahogany veneer.

The rest of the hutch is solid

mahogany.

Parquetry. The design on this

cabinet is composed with

pieces of cherry and morado

sliced

in. thick and fitted

together on a plywood sub-

strate like tiles. On the upper

doors, the edges of the tiles

were chamfered, creating a

handsome reveal.

Timothy Coleman makes custom furniture in

Greenfield, Mass.

Low-relief carving. Shop-sawn ve-

neer is thick enough to accept light

carved decoration, as on this cabinet

in maple and bubinga. The design on

the veneered door panels is a combi-

nation of lines carved with a V-tool

and a background punched with

steel stamps. The relieved areas

were dyed with tinted shellac.