glue of choice for laminated sides

[Mark Parker]

Hi Mark,
I generally work with more open grained woods when I laminate sides. My usual method is to first sand the areas of bleed through to have a uniformly smooth surface, but not so much as to remove wood (veneer). I then recoat the pieces with epoxy and squeegee it into the pores. You can use old credit cards, plastic lids cut to shape, or even the small rubber edged squeegees the big box store sells. Anything to push it around and into the pores. I then squeegee off any excess epoxy.

When I came back and looked at my sides this morning after the epoxy has cured, I find it did sink into a lot of the curl and everything looks more even. I think a bit of sanding and another coat will patch things up. But now I have another question: What do you do after you pore fill with epoxy? Do you just sand the epoxy to a smooth finish and apply your finish over the epoxy? Or do you sand it back to raw wood with just the pores filled? I thought that with a pore filler, you removed all the filler except in the pores before proceeding with finishing, but the idea of sanding hard epoxy off the relatively soft and thin veneer makes me nervous. I would suspect that the more open pore woods you use would be even worse than the maple, so you must have developed a technique. What is it?
Thanks

[Clay Schaeffer]

Sand carefully.
Think about what you are doing and how much you have done. When sanding veneer often less is more and enough is enough. Most veneers have a relatively smooth surface so starting with a higher grit sandpaper is O.K.. Micron papers have a more uniform granule size so often allow less sanding to achieve the same results (just remember the numbers work opposite of cami or P graded papers - the number is the size in microns of the granule).
Some people sand back to wood and only leave epoxy in the pores, and some leave a thin coat on the surface. For veneer work the thin coat method would be safer - less chance of sanding through the veneer. Some people do multiple coats of epoxy and lightly sand between coats, with a final thin coat applied and carefully squeegeed off.
The way I use veneer - multiple layers of matched veneer reglued in the order it was cut - makes sand throughs less problematic. If the outer layer of veneer gets thin in places it is backed up by the layer underneath. The better you press the laminate the less it will require sanding.
Most of my experience working with a single layer of veneer was as a cabinetmaker where epoxy is not used as a glue or pore filler. Others on this forum have laminated a single layer of veneer and may be better able to advise you.
I will happily answer your questions as my experience allows, but again, gathering information from multiple sources may show you the best way to go for your particular situation.

[Barry Daniels]

Mark, it would have been better to start a new thread instead of resurrecting one from 2012.

[Clay Schaeffer]

Hi Barry,
At least it shows he was checking the archives for answers to his questions. Often people are directed there when we know it has a lot of good information on the subject. It does give us "old timers" a pause to see posts from people who haven't posted in years. I sometimes wonder what they are doing now, or if they are still on the planet.