Is there any fix when you stupidly sand through the veneer on plywood

[Jay Jolliffe]

Well some days I wonder why I go into my shop. I know some days are better than others. It was all going to good up until today. I'm building a bookcase out of vg fir plywood & vg fir lumber. I stupidly sanded through the veneer in a small spot about 2" long & 1" wide. So I have a spot at eye level that's a little darker than the rest. Anyone know of a fix for his. This bookcase is 5' wide & 7' tall. I have about 1,200.00 worth of wood into it so I cant start over.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Sorry - I don't know the answer.

But - whatever the answer is, you can bet I'm keeping it on file.

[george wilson]

You could paint the part you sanded through,and its mating parts,but leave other parts stained. For example: A book case with satin black sides,but cherry stained shelves.

They make veneer so thin these days,it is ridiculous.

[John Coloccia]

Post a picture. There's always a clever solution somewhere

[Mike Henderson]

This takes some talent but I've seen people "paint" a knot where they sanded through.

Mike

[Victor Robinson]

I've not done this but would it be possible to rout out a larger area say 1/8" deep and do an inlay patch?

[Larry Browning]

There's about a 90% chance you will be the only one that notices the mistake unless you point it out. And 90% those that do notice will be too polite to say anything. The others you can just respond that in every piece you make, you always build in an intentional minor flaw (or 2) as your signature and that these little imperfections give it a character and uniqueness that cannot be duplicated.

That what I do anyway!

[Jim Holman]

Insert a "Dutchman" a piece of veneer selected to match the sand thru. Use a gouge ground flat on the end to outline an eliptical hole; carefully remove the waste, and use the same gouge to cut the matching veneer patch. Glue it in and sand flush.

[Peter Quinn]

More specific info about the construction details and location of the sand through would help to devise an appropriate solution. If the book case has a face frame if may be possible to veneer the section between two shelves which includes the patch. It might be possible to use a router and take the isolated area down by .020" or so and veneer a section between dados or shelf locations assuming your solid stock is wide enough and a close enough match to your sheet stock. You might also buy just a sheet of fir veneer to cover tthe entire side in question. It could be applied pre assembly in a variety of ways or post assembly with clamps or an iron on technique using PVA glue. These are my first round approaches. When routing in a patch, go big, and go wide.

[curtis rosche]

you could add a trim or detail peice?

[Stephen Cherry]

Of course a picture would help, but it may be possible to cover it up. You would need a bunch of dyes and pigments, and some zinsser sealcoat (dewaxed shelac). The idea would be to match two collors of the wood, the lightest color with pigment in the shelac and the darkest color with dye in shelac. Basically, you work in the pigment to color the sanded through area, and a little bit around it. Then you have an area that is all one color, which is the lightest color of the wood. Then you would paint the grain on with the shelac- dye mix using an artists brush, or a twisted piece of cloth, etc. This would then be blended a little with detnatured alcohol on a cloth or paper towel.

First step last-- you would start all of this with a few coats of the sealcoat. That way, if you don't like what you have done, you can take it off with denatured alcohol.

Shelac is your friend in all of this- super easy to put on, dries very fast, and removable. You may want to practice a little on scrap first, and learn a little about colors (color wheel), including blending dyes and pigments. Also, The difference, generally, between dyes and pigments is that pigments work like paint- they color the surface, while dyes work like sunglasses- they add a see through coating.

[Paul McGaha]

Try not to feel too bad Jay. I've done it too and probably a lot of us have.

As George says it is so thin.

PHM

[John Coloccia]

For the record, my very first instinct knowing nothing else about it and not seeing how bad it is, would be to just leave it alone and finish it. If you're going to attempt any fix other than covering it up with trim, the right way to do it is to make several test pieces and perfect the technique first. That includes going all the way through the finish schedule because things that look good with no finish often look horrible with finish. Very few people will do that and they will use the final product for practice....with predictable results.

[Brett Robson]

I can't remember where I saw the article, but I recall reading about different methods for fixing problems such as that.

One of the suggested fixes was to use various colored pencils to gently shade the sanded spot to make it blend with the surrounding material.

[ian maybury]

HI Jay. It'd be better to see it, but if it's in a flat area (an edge might complicate matters, but may well be repairable too) I'm pretty sure you could patch the sand through if you can get some veneer that matches pretty well. I did similar jobs years ago repairing wooden kayaks. A glue that sands well is advisable, for example one of the older type non rubbery 'yellow' aliphatic resin glues.

Make sure that the depression to be filled is no deeper than the thickness of the new piece of veneer, and that the veneer is thin as it'll otherwise be very tough to press down properly.

The other critical is the method of holding it down - it's got to be fully down all over. Regardless of the fact that it'll be going into a shallow depression. Vacuum bagging would probably be ideal, but failing that possibility a clamped pad faced with an inch or so of a pretty firm but elastic foam that deforms a bit, but applies and maintains real pressure while the glue is drying.

The final essential is refinishing - the veneer around the area may be thin, so care will be needed, as will a rigid sanding block with the abrasive glued to it so it cuts flat. You can mask the outer edges of the sanding pad with tape to reduce the risk of it sanding into the original veneer.

After that it's a case of going carefully until the new piece of veneer is cut back flush with the original surface - once back flat there should be an only just visible joint line around the perimeter of the repaired area.

ian