A Case for the Party Stands (A Work-in-Progress Thread)

[Gary Muto]

[Also, if you're interested in learning this technique of marquetry, I'd highly recommend Paul Schurch's DVD on marquetry. He gives you a design (comes with the DVD) and then takes you step-by-step through making it. It's a relatively simple design but it will get you started.]

Mike,
I actually have Paul's DVDs and watched them. They are great and I recommend them as well.

Paul trained in Europe and is a professional so when he makes it look doable one still has to wonder. I see a guy like you do it... an engineer and hobbiest like myself and it makes it that more accessible. I'm sure you have MANY hours of practice and can be considered a professional, but at least you didn't train extensively with a master.

Your work is very inspiring and I enjoy watching the progress.

[Mike Henderson]

Mike,
I actually have Paul's DVDs and watched them. They are great and I recommend them as well.

Paul trained in Europe and is a professional so when he makes it look doable one still has to wonder. I see a guy like you do it... an engineer and hobbiest like myself and it makes it that more accessible. I'm sure you have MANY hours of practice and can be considered a professional, but at least you didn't train extensively with a master.

Your work is very inspiring and I enjoy watching the progress.

Thanks for your kind words, Gary. I'm far from a professional. I think (almost) anyone can do marquetry but it's best to start with regular veneer work* before you take up marquetry. You need to know how to handle, glue, and press veneer so that you don't make a rookie mistake on something that you've put so many hours into.

Mike

*This would be gluing up panels of bookmatched veneer, making a few four way and radial matches, and maybe some parquetry.

[Mike Henderson]

I finished sand shading and putting the design together. I then put paper tape over the show face of the design to hold the pieces together, and remove the blue tape from the back.

Here's what the show face looks like now, with the paper tape over the face.
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Taking the blue tape off the back gives me my first look at what the design will look like. Since we're looking at the glue face (the back of the design) we see a mirror image of the design.

I'm pretty satisfied with the way it came out, although there are a few places where I might have shaded a bit more, or a bit less.
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The background is oversize so my next steps are to trim the background to size and then start making and applying the banding and border.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

Post 1 of 2 posts

I trimmed the veneer to size - it required taking about 1/2" off on all sides. Next, I'm going to lay the banding. I'm going to use quarter cut tulipwood, cut across the grain, outlined by two strips of holly.

In preparing to lay the banding, I put blue tape on the show face all around the border.
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I'm going to work from the glue face, so this gives me the sticky side on the glue face.
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In cutting the banding, I use a banding guide, which is a piece of MDF about 24" long with rabbets cut in each corner. The one shown here has rabbets of 1/16", 2/16" (1/8"), 3/16" and 4/16" (1/4"). I'm going to use the 1/16" for the holly.
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I first create a straight edge on the holly veneer, then slide the banding guide against the holly so that the veneer is in the 1/16" rabbet.
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Then I slide my straightedge against the banding guide, being careful not to displace the guide.
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Then I remove the guide. This leaves a 1/16" strip of veneer exposed beyond the straightedge.
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I use my veneer saw to cut the veneer, giving me a 1/16" strip of veneer.
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It's almost impossible to cut these strips without a guide. The strips have to be exactly the same width from piece-to-piece, and exactly the same width from end-to-end. Trying to accomplish this by measuring is extremely difficult. With the jig, you can cut a bunch of strips quickly.

That doesn't mean they're all going to be okay. I examine the strips before use and discard any that are tapered or have any other defects. So cut more strips than you'll need.

More in the next post.

[Mike Henderson]

Post 2 of 2 posts.

The tulip wood is cut across grain. When you do this, you must provide something to hold the veneer together. Otherwise, it'll fall apart in the cutting or when you attempt to handle it after cutting. Here, I've used paper tape on one side of the veneer. For small amounts of banding, you can use blue tape instead of the paper tape.
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To cut it, I do exactly the same as for the holly, except I use the 4/16" (1/4") rabbet. Cut the end square and slide the guide against the veneer.
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Then move the straightedge into position, remove the guide, and then cut.
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Each piece is fairly short so the pieces will have to be pieced together to make the banding. I do this by cutting each end square before placing it and slide the next piece tight against the previous piece. It may take some trimming to get the two piece to fit together invisibly.
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On the corners, I want to miter the two pieces of banding together. I do that by overlapping the banding and cutting it with a chisel. The chisel must be aligned very accurately so that the miter will be correct. I tap the chisel with a mallet to make the cut.
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And this is what a corner looks like.
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Here's the panel with the banding complete.
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Next, I'll put on the border veneer.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

I made the border for the panel today. Doing the border is fairly straight forward although doing it at a 45 degree angle, as this one is, is a bit more of a challenge. The border is oversize, by about a half inch all around.

Remember that you're looking at the glue face so the design is a mirror image.
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And just for interest, here's what the show face looks like. I put veneer tape around the perimeter because the veneer splits easily along the grain. The veneer tape helps to protect it.
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This completes the marquetry and veneer work. Next, I'll start preparing for gluing the panel to the doors. It's going to take some special "jigs" to hold the doors in place during the press. It'll probably be several days before I post again.

Mike

[Gary Muto]

Mike,

It looks like it came out great! I tlooks very professional to me.
Thanks for sharing.

[Mike Henderson]

Post 1 of 2 posts.

I worked on preparing for the glue up. Since there are three doors that make up this glue-up, I need to construct something that will hold the doors in place during the press. I start by cutting a piece of plywood larger than the three doors.
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Since this will go into a vacuum bag, I like to smooth any sharp edges.
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Then, I covered the plywood with plastic. The reason for doing that is to make sure any glue that squeezes out does not glue a door to the plywood.
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Viewing the plywood from the back.
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Here are the doors laid on the plywood.
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I need to space the doors the same as they were on the cabinet, and make sure they don't get glued together by any squeeze out. To do this, I put blue tape on the faces, and build it up to get the same spacing.
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I made some blocks, 1/2" thick, to use to hold the doors in place. It's important that the blocks be thinner than the doors so that there's no risk of them holding the caul off the doors.
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This is how the blocks will be placed.
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Continued on next post.

[Mike Henderson]

Post 2 of 2 posts.

I put two screws in each block.
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And then covered the blocks with blue tape, just to be sure.
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One problem with this glue up is that the seam in the veneer MUST align with the space between the doors. To make sure I achieve this alignment, Paul Schurch suggested that I glue blocks onto the veneer to exactly position the veneer on the doors. Here's a few of the blocks. Note the blue tape on them to keep them from getting glued to the doors.
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Here's the veneer with the blocks glued on.
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Here's what I do after I apply the glue to the substrate. First, I place the veneer, using the blocks to achieve the alignment I want. Then I put a sheet of plastic over the veneer. The purpose of this plastic is to prevent the cloth (or caul) from getting glued to the veneer if any glue bleeds through the veneer. And since there are some gaps in the marquetry I can be assured that some glue will bleed through.
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Then I place a layer of heavy cloth, such as sail cloth. The reason for this is to spread the pressure across the veneer. If there are pieces of veneer that are thicker than others, the cloth will press the lower pieces as well as the higher pieces.
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Then I place a caul on top. The caul should be approximately the size of the panel (just a bit larger). If you make it too large, the outside of the caul can be pulled down, resulting in lower pressure just inside the border of the doors. That is, the caul could bow upward.
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I probably won't do the actual glue up until tomorrow or Friday. I need to have another person help me put the bundle in the vacuum bag. It's not extraordinarily heavy but it's awkward to handle. So to avoid any disasters, I'll ask for help.

Mike

[Gary Muto]

Mike,

Very nice. I like the tip about aligning the veneer seams to the door gaps and how you accomplished this. So your Marquetry is applied over the entire door. I never realized that. The doors look to be frame and panel construction. That brings two questions to mind:
- Do your panels float?
- What material do you use for the panels?
OK 3
- Any other differences in your door construction over typical rail/stile and mortise/tenon? Maybe you have to sand or plane to get the frame and panels to the exact same height and minimize and gaps?

Apologies if you already covered this. I don't remember seeing it.

[Mike Henderson]

See responses below:

Mike,

Very nice. I like the tip about aligning the veneer seams to the door gaps and how you accomplished this. So your Marquetry is applied over the entire door (face of the cabinet).
Yes, I don't know any other way to make sure the design lines up after I apply the marquetry. Once the marquetry is glued, I'll use a veneer saw and cut the top door off. Then I'll separate the two lower doors. Then, I may have to plane the doors a small amount to get them to fit properly. My belief is that if the design is lined up, then the gaps (the reveal) between the doors will not be that noticeable because your eye will continue the design through the gaps. We'll see.

I never realized that. The doors look to be frame and panel construction. That brings two questions to mind:
- Do your panels float?
No, the MDF in the center is glued to the mahogany on the sides. The only purpose of the mahogany is to "show" mahogany on the edges of the doors. On the top door, the MDF I had was too short so I stuck an additional piece of mahogany in there. The mahogany could have been a lot narrower and it wouldn't have hurt anything. But make sure you have real wood to set the hinges into. Screws don't hold that well in MDF.
- What material do you use for the panel
As a substrate for veneer, MDF is very good. It's flat and it doesn't expand and contract very much with changes in temperature and humidity. It has some bad points (heavy, falls apart if it gets really wet) but in most furniture it's the substrate of choice.
OK 3
- Any other differences in your door construction over typical rail/stile and mortise/tenon? Maybe you have to sand or plane to get the frame and panels to the exact same height and minimize and gaps.
Yes, it's important that the doors all be the same thickness. I did put them all through the planer to make sure they would be the same thickness. The other requirement is that when you put the hinges on, the doors still line up. That is, it's possible to install hinges so that the door will stand away from the carcasses so you have to make sure your hinge mortises are the proper depth so that the doors are flush to the carcasses when you close them.

Apologies if you already covered this. I don't remember seeing it.

[Gary Muto]

Thanks Mike. I appreciate the insight. I had some assumptions but you cleared everything up.

This is a great thread!

[Mike Henderson]

Post 1 of 2 posts

Yesterday, I did the glue up. I don't have any pictures of the process because the glue up is a stressful procedure and I didn't take any time out to take pictures. I mix up the urea formaldehyde glue (it comes as a powder) and spread it on the substrate. I also put a bit on the back of the marquetry to make sure that the glue came up between the elements - so that there wouldn't be any voids between the pieces.

Then my wife and I placed the veneer on the substrate and put the plastic, cloth, and caul on. I use packing tape to hold everything in place so that nothing shifts as we're putting it in the bag.

Here's a picture of the bundle in the vacuum bag with an electric blanket on top. The UF glue is very sensitive to temperature and won't cure at temperatures much below 70 degrees. While it's hotter than that now, extra heat causes the glue to set faster.
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I commented that the glue up process is a high stress time for me. There's just so many things that can go wrong. If I put too little glue, I'll have bubbles - but these can usually be repaired. The veneer can shift during the process of putting the packet together and getting it into the bag. If placement is critical, this can be a fatal flaw. A piece of marquetry can get stuck in the glue and if you then shift the veneer, you can have that piece under another part of the veneer. The UF glue is slow - I usually leave it in press for 6 to 8 hours - so I have to wait a long time to find out if everything went well.

Anyway, after biting my fingernails, the time finally came to take it out of press. This is what it looked like (I've already sprayed some water on it in preparation for removing the veneer tape).
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Here it is with about half the veneer tape removed. When moistened, the veneer tape comes off pretty easily. But there's many layers of tape and the water doesn't penetrate that fast so I have to spray again after I remove each layer. Paul Schurch uses a belt sander to remove the paper tape but I'm too chicken to do that. I'm afraid I'll sand through and ruin the work.
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And here it is with essentially all the veneer tape removed.
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My next step is to separate the doors. First, I trim back the excess veneer at the seam between the top door and the bottom doors - I need to see exactly where it is.
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Then I clamp a straightedge across the work, aligning it with the seam, and use my veneer saw to cut through the veneer.
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Here's the top door cut loose.
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Continued in next post.

[Mike Henderson]

Post 2 of 2 posts.

I cut between the two bottom doors in the same way. After trimming the excess veneer around the doors, this is what the doors look like.
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Here's a picture with the two bottom doors pulled out just a bit so you can see them better. The seam in the veneer lined up with the gap between the two doors very well.
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Here are the doors installed on the cabinet. The fit is not perfect but it's close.
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My next step is to fit the doors a bit better. Once I'm satisfied with the fit, I'll begin the finishing process.

Unless some of you ask me to document the rest of the process, my next post will be of the finished cabinet. Thank you for reading this thread.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

Here's a picture of the doors finished and fitted. My issue now is knobs. I'm thinking of putting an ebony handle on the top door but I'm stuck on what to do for the bottom doors. I don't want to put knobs on the marquetry but putting them at the bottom would be awkward to reach.
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Any suggestions on what I can do for knobs?

Mike