Finished cherry side table with veneered doors.

[Mike ODonnell]

Here is my finished console after much help and direction from you folks here at Sawmill Creek. Thanks a million. The piece is cherry with elm burl veneered doors. I finished with a varnish gel to seal the pores and minimize blotching before completing with a polyurethane. Thanks for all the advice.

[Bruce Page]

Wow! That is worthy of more than one pic!

Stunning work

[gary Zimmel]

Another Wow...

And as Bruce said it would be nice to get a few more pics.
Great job Mike.

[John Keeton]

High Fashion!! Great result, and great design. I really like the burl panels, but we do need close up pics to fully appreciate this!

[John Timberlake]

Very nice job. Love that veneer.

[Jim Kountz]

Thats a stunning looking piece!! The doors are just beautiful and I love the leg detail. Well done!!

[Matt Winterowd]

That's gorgeous! Amazing work!

[Mike ODonnell]

Thanks guys for all the kind words. I thought I'd add a major cost saving $$ tip when it comes to the veneer work...

I looked into buying a vacumn pump but it was far far too expensive ($400-600 crazy). What I ended up doing was buying an aquarium oxygen bubble pump from Walmart. I opened the pump and flipped the diaphram block so it sucked air IN instead of pumping air OUT. It actually had two diaphrams so I used both ports. It worked like a charm. This cost like $20-25 bucks. I got about 5-10 mmHg pressure... which was plenty. I put a flat particle board (or MDF) above and below the veneer door when it was in the vacumn bag so that the pressure was evenly distributed. You see on the net that these boards usually have channels cut in them to distribute the vacumn. The door was dry in about 2 hours using regular wood glue. Of course I practiced before doing the actual doors. ;-)

The vacumn bag was a heavy duty vinyl shower curtain from Walmart as well. I folded in half and cut to size. I glued the two sides with vinyl glue from the auto section from... yes... Walmart. $5 bucks tops. One side was left open to insert the door. I closed the open end between a 3/8" dowel and long 1" wide board with a 3/8" dado cut in it to receive the dowel. Again, the open end of the vacumn bag was placed between the long dowel and dado board.

My vacumn system literally cost about $35. I detected NO air bubbles under the veneer even though that burl veneer is a really really warpy piece of veneer. The doors are about 16" x 20".

I hope my vacumn tips are helpful. The weekend craftsman need not spend major $$$ to add veneer to our projects.

[Jim Paulson]

Hi Mike,

Great work. I'd love to see closeup pictures of the veneered panels too. Thanks for talking about veneering with all your experiences using a homemade vacumn setup for gluing. I especially appreciate your mindset of frugality in this tough economy.

I have some veneering that I'll be doing in the near future with some chippendale mirrors and your post was helpful.

Jim

http://www.chairsbypaulson.com

[Jim Tobias]

Mike,
Beautiful work! The table and panels are very nicely done! I wouldlove to see close ups of the door panels. Is it a beaded edge? Can't tell for sure form the pictures.

Jim

[Jimmy Williams]

Wow is about all I can say on this one. Beautiful work all the way around. I too would like to see more close-up pictures.

BTW - It may just be me, but when I look at the book match on the middle two doors, I see a skull and cross bones.

[John Thompson]

Beautiful piece as I almost missed this thread. That burl reached out and grabbed my eyes by the socket.

Well done...

[Thomas Pender]

I also try to make less expensive (cheap) ways of doing things, but your aquarium pump plus the shower curtain for the veneer takes the cake. Considering the beautiful product you put out, your method speaks for itself!

[Brent Ring]

Absolutely stunning and certainly we need more pics! Great work!

[Bob Carreiro]

When I see jobs like this, it makes me feel out of my league! Good job.