Help sought with Toy Chest build

[maznaz]

Hi folks. I'm part way through my box-making voyage of discovery and the final piece I have to make is a toy chest of specific dimensions, with a specific request from the recipient that it incorporates Olive wood in some way.

I'm intending to make a frame and panel construction, with the panels being book-matched olive wood. I have an olive wood slab that's been sat in my home for a few months for just this purpose. I have purchased a bandsaw to do the resaw, as my previous project involved resawing a piece of sapele for a box and it took rather a while and by the time I'd made the surfaces flat the grain was no longer as accurately mirrored as I'd like. My bandsaw is a record power BS250 which theoretically has a resaw capacity of 120mm although it doesn't look comfortable to use at full height.

My questions are thus:
Should I make a veneer cut with this setup so that I can attach to plywood and glue the panels in place for extra rigidity?
If so, how thick can said veneer be before it stops being veneer and starts to be wood and risks warping and separating from the substrate?

Is it a better idea to just resaw the wood as normal and have book-matched floating panels?

Many thanks for any thoughts!

 

[Blackswanwood]

Hi - what dimensions are you working to?

 

[maznaz]

Hi - what dimensions are you working to?

The olive panels need to be about 22cm wide and 36cm high. They're being cut from a slab that's about 2cm thick, so if I resaw rather than veneer my panels would be max 1cm - kerf / 2

 

[Blackswanwood]

I don’t think there is a hard and fast rule as to when you cross from veneer to thin piece of wood.

I think I would probably go down the veneer with ply or mdf as the substrate. If you veneer both sides of the substrate at the same time all other things being equal you will have a stable board.

Cutting veneer isn’t too difficult but choice of blade can make a big difference. I found switching to Vari-tooth from Tuffsaw made a massive difference.

 

[maznaz]

I don’t think there is a hard and fast rule as to when you cross from veneer to thin piece of wood.

I think I would probably go down the veneer with ply or mdf as the substrate. If you veneer both sides of the substrate at the same time all other things being equal you will have a stable board.

Cutting veneer isn’t too difficult but choice of blade can make a big difference. I found switching to Vari-tooth from Tuffsaw made a massive difference.

Thanks mate. At the moment I only have a 3pi half inch blade (widest my bandsaw will support) which was recommended to me for resawing. Would you suggest I got the vari-tooth as well in the same width to do veneers? I don't mind planing them by hand after cutting but obviously don't want to lose the book-matching by taking too much off.

 

[Blackswanwood]

As long as it’s a sharp blade you should be okay - just take it steady when you are making the cut. Making sure the fence is rock solid also helps greatly. The varitooth has a smaller tooth in between each main one to clear the waste.

The Tuffsaw website has some really useful background on their different blade types. If you need any advice and drop them an e-mail they are super helpful.

 

[Hornbeam]

If you are resawing to make panels, you have a number of option
Use the olive as a solid panel, Which will be done as a book match by cutting your existing material in half (thickness wise) Bank on losing 4 to 5 mm from the bandsaw kerf and clean up so you will only end up with 8mm thick panels. Panels will then need to be a floating fit
Cut veneers off the panel which can then either be glued onto a solid wood core. Keep the same grain direction. Whatever you do to one side you have to do to the other but you could use a different timber veneer on the inside if you are short of olive. . Panel will need to be a floating fit. Veneers can be any thickness but same on both sides
Cut veneers and glue onto a stable core like MDF or quality ply. As the core is stable and doesnt move but the veneers will still try and shrink across the grain I wouldnt go any thicker than 2.5mm.
Cleaning up veneers is hard and is really best with a thickness sander which I dont have. I have had success with using double sided sticky and putting then on a backer and then fine plane/coarse sandpaper
Ian

 

[maznaz]

Keep the same grain direction. Whatever you do to one side you have to do to the other but you could use a different timber veneer on the inside if you are short of olive. .

Thanks for these thoughts. This part in particular I hadn't considered and could have been really caught out.

 

[Hornbeam]

Regarding grain direction. I always use a balancer veneer on the other side even for very small boxes
If I am veneering onto a ply core, I generally put the veneers with the grain running at 90 degrees to the outer sheets of the plywood
If veneering onto solid the veneers go with grain in the same direction as the solid core
Ian