Greene & Greene End Table - #11 Veneer Panels Part 2 & Trimming Legs to Length

After all the veneers are edge glued and the glue squeeze out scraped off it’s time to run them through the thickness sander.  This is makes sure they are completely flat and the same thickness.  Right now, they are a bit under 1/8” thick.  When material is this thin sometimes the drive belt on the sander gets sucked up against the sanding drum.  When that happens, the drum tries to sand the drive belt smooth to the degradation of both.  The solution is to use a sled to increase the distance between the drive belt and the sanding drum.  Here I am using a piece of cherry about 1 ¼” thick and 40” long.  The end has a piece of wood that stands about 1/16” above the cherry acting as a backstop.  You can see what I mean in the photo below.

With the veneers flattened I moved on to preparing their base.  Taking the surfaced pieces of cedar, I ripped them a little wide.  Next is to mark a line on the edge to follow when ripping them down to just shy of 3/8” thick.  To get ready I set up the bandsaw with a guide on the left side of blade for width of cut.  Also used is the yellow magnetic featherboard to the right of the blade whose black plastic wing on its left provides pressure to hold the wood against the guide.  A pass through the bandsaw gives the two pieces on the right.  The bottom one is for the veneer base and other will be set aside for use on something else later.

After that the piece to be used for the base is run through the surfacer to get rid of the bandsaw blade’s rough cut and bring the thickness down to just a little over ¼” thick.  They are then crosscut a little long and are ready for glue-up.  That process is similar to the edge gluing.  The same flat base with plastic laminate on it is set on the workbench.  My sized cedar base comes next then glue is spread on the base with a toothed glue spreader.  The veneer is centered on the base and a 6-mil piece of polyethene is laid down on it.  On top of the polyethene an oak plank or caul about 1 ¼” thick is added.  Last a whole bunch of clamps are used which along with the caul provides even clamping pressure.

While the glue cures on the veneer/base it’s time to finally cut the legs to their final length so they are flush with the top rails.  Rather than using a ruler to measure the length and in doing so risk an error a marking knife shown below is used to slice a thin cut in the leg at the exact height required. The result is the top photo.  After taking out the rail you can see the cut which just happens to be on my pencil mark.

Once marked the legs are cut using the chop saw.  Here is what the leg, top rail and spindle look like assembled.

After all the veneered panels are glued to their bases they get trimmed.  On the left is a trimmed panel and on the right one before trimming.  If the veneer shifts on the base during the glue up the base edge gets made parallel to the veneer using a hand plane.  That’s followed by a couple of passes through the table saw to trim the base flush with the veneer.  Last it to trim the ends flush and square with the chop saw.

Once the veneered panels are trimmed and squared, I need to bring the thickness down to fit the grooves using the thickness sander.  Right now, they are about 1/16” too thick.  First step is using 80 grit paper make a couple of passes on the panel’s back side so it is parallel to the front and 1/32” too thick.  Next is to change the paper to 220 grit and sand the veneered face smooth.  Last is sand the back side until the panel easily fits in the groove.  It can’t be at all snug because the panels will have a lacquered finish applied before they are put in place and space needs to be left for the thickness of the lacquer.  I learned this the hard way when making an antique muzzle loading rifle (top photo).  I had very carefully inlayed the brass hardware with the stock unfinished then once finished the brass pieces would not fit in their recesses.  Anyway, the bottom photo is what the panels look like all trimmed and squared but not cut to final width and length.  That will be done after nearly all the base’s edges get routed with a 1/8” radius roundover.

While the routing and finish sanding is being done the veneered panels will be clamped between a couple of thick flat straight boards.  With all the work that’s been put into them I want them to stay flat and not warp.  As the wood is mostly quarter sawn and everything was dry it probably wouldn’t happen but better safe than sorry.

On a side note, ever wonder how I get the colors in the photos to match when my shop has a mix of incandescent, fluorescence tube, twisty compact fluorescent, LED, electronic flash and natural light?  My secret weapon is a standardized gray card.  When in doubt it gets included in a shot after the image is framed and the exposure set.  Using that known shade of gray the color balance of the photo as a whole can be adjusted to it. 

Next Up – Veneer Panels Part 2 Routing Edges & Slotting Rails