I need to make a pair of small veneered panels for cabinet doors. They will be glued by splines into a light weight frame which will just be trim really — not enough to prevent movement of the panel. The panels are about 400mm tall and 200mm wide. The veneer will be sawn, about 1.5 mm thick, stuck onto 12mm birch ply.
My dilemma is that for visual reasons I would love to have the front of the door short grain, and the back of the door long grain. BUT, I would have thought that this would normally lead to a strong tendency for the panel to cup across the short grain direction. It needs to remain flat.
So I'm wondering if there's anyway round this. For example if I made two thinner panels, one long grain, one short, each on a 4mm ply core with face veneer on one side and a backing veneer on the other, then left them for a few days before glueing them back to back into one panel, would this stay flat do you think?
My dilemma is that for visual reasons I would love to have the front of the door short grain, and the back of the door long grain. BUT, I would have thought that this would normally lead to a strong tendency for the panel to cup across the short grain direction. It needs to remain flat.
So I'm wondering if there's anyway round this. For example if I made two thinner panels, one long grain, one short, each on a 4mm ply core with face veneer on one side and a backing veneer on the other, then left them for a few days before glueing them back to back into one panel, would this stay flat do you think?
