1/4" Wenge plywood vs. Wenge veneer.

[Chris Yarish]

I am looking to make a Wenge headboard.
I have recently come accross 4 x 8 sheets of 1/4" wenge veneered plywood that is substantially cheaper in price than wenge sheet veneer. Is it advisable to use the veneered ply over the veneer itself?
I realize that I will have to use real wenge strips to cover the plywood edging, but when I calulate time incurred in the veneering process, the added cost, and my inexperience in veneering, am I sacrificing anything by using the plywood?

My approach was to glue the plywood over a 3/4" MDF substrate. Will the MDF require a veneer-like treatment on the backside to avoid any bending as the glue tightens and cures?

Thanks

[Steve Cox]

To answer your last question first, any time you veneer you need to treat the back side the same way you treat the front in order to balance the panel. If the ply has the grain structure that you want I would go with it. The main reason to veneer is to get something not available in ply, either grain pattern, or a specific wood not available commercially in ply. If the ply is laid up with out many voids and it has the face quality you want I would go with it.

[Glen Blanchard]

To answer your last question first, any time you veneer you need to treat the back side the same way you treat the front in order to balance the panel.

Steve - Is this a universal truth regardless of the substrate? In my very limted veneering experience, I have placed veneers over MDF (one side only) with no issues whatsoever. However, I am doing small boxes - maybe that would explain my lack of problems?

[Tim Sproul]

My approach was to glue the plywood over a 3/4" MDF substrate. Will the MDF require a veneer-like treatment on the backside to avoid any bending as the glue tightens and cures?

No need to add PLYWOOD to both sides of the MDF. If you were adding a solid wood veneer to one side of the MDF, you should add a similar solid wood veneer to the other face. Since you're laminating 2, "balanced" sheetgoods together the lamination will be balanced.

[Steve Cox]

Glen, I must admit I have never tried to veneer a panel on one side and had it turn into a pretzel. I have simply done what I was taught to do. If you look at commercial sheet goods however, you will find that they always (in my experience) balance the panels. Even one sided melamine will have a layer of paper on the other side to balance the sheet. The one place I can think of that is not balanced is countertops. They usually have the laminate on one side and not the other.

Chris and Tim, I did not catch the idea to laminate the plywood to MDF on first read. Tim, in order to balance a panel you should have an odd number of layers and they should be the same material in the same place on both sides. For this application I would laminate a layer of the plywood on both sides of a 1/4" MDF core. That would make a balanced panel of the proper thickness and give you the appearance of solid wood on both sides.

[Chris Yarish]

I have never actually veneered before, but I have read about how to do it, hence the concern.
I was under the impression that 3/4" MDF would be essentially immuned to the strain put on it by the layer of thin ply.

[Mark Singer]

The basic rule is whatever you put on one side , put something simililar on the opposite. If you skin MDF with plywood....the bare MDF will grow causing a warp... If you seal it it may be ok...to be sure ...use one layer of ply of the same thickness to each face or one layer of veneer to each. The unseen layer can just be maple. The warping in an 8' sheet is about 3/4" ....so you will see it!

[Chris Yarish]

Thanks.

That's what I was probably forgetting...the greater the size, the greater the visible pull.