Help with veneer

[philster751]

Hi,

I recently purchased some boards of very unique mackay cedar from the guys at boutique timbers, very impressive stuff! Of course, I bought more wood than I needed for the project I had in mind, and so have hatched a plan to (hopefully) turn the rest into veneer to cover some MDF speaker cabinets. Living where I do, unfortunately at this point I don't have the resources to do this myself, and was wondering if someone could shed some light on where I might go in sydney to trim up the boards and turn them into some veneer for me. Is this viable both in terms of how the mackay cedar would fare as veneer and also financially? Any help would be much appreciated.

Phil

[John Samuel]

Most woodies who produce veneers do that on a band saw.

Why don't you try to find someone local that has a band saw that will cut the widths of veneer you want. You might even find someone on this forum who is willing to help. They might want a few bucks for wear and tear on their expensive veneering blade, but it would be a cheap way to get your veneers.

Failing that, ring around the cabinet makers until you find one that has a band saw with a nice deep cut (mine is 355 mm, but some commercial saws are bigger) and a nice TCT veneering blade.

I cut veneers to 2.8 mm. The kerf is 1.2 mm, so each veneer costs me 4 mm of wood. After sanding, edge gluing, laminating and finish sanding I aim for a finished size no thicker than 2 mm (in practice between 1.5 and 2 mm).

Of course, if you can find someone who can slice the veneers your yield increases, but I have no idea how much that would cost.

Cheerio!

John