Thursday, February 17, 2011

Resawn veneers...

I left off with rough cut planks. These particular soft maple planks are thicker than I need; this allows me to resaw a couple of sheets of veneer from each of the planks. I typically slice a veneer sheet from one side and then slice another veneer sheet from the opposite side. I do this to equalize the contact the newly cut plank has with the surrounding air to avoid any warping, twists, cupping or bowing of the resulting, narrower board. The planks I am working with are on average seven inches wide so this does not present too much of a load on my bandsaw and it is easy to track the planks straight and true through the wide blade.

The thickness of each board after resawing the veneers sheets is still thicker than I ultimately need for the cabinets, this will be to allow for handplaning and any irregularities in the resulting boards. I need quite a few of these maple veneer sheets as they will be doubled up for each of the panels in the two cabinets. In this case eight panels, therefore sixteen sheets of soft maple veneer are necessary. There are a few extra sheets I have also sawn just in case. The resawing went well, with each of the sheets a little over 1/8 inch in thickness. One side of each sheet of veneer has been dressed on the jointer prior to resawing so I will only need to smooth the other face of each of the veneer sheets. It is a great feeling to be able to draw so much more wood from single planks of wood instead of planing away to reduce the thickness. Some of the veneer sheets in the photo above.

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