Need help with veneer for table legs.

[Cody Armstrong]

I've started a small dining table out of some locally cut sassafras and don't have enough thickness in material to make legs. It will be my first time to attempt something like this(I guess the time has come).
I believe I will have the material to re-saw enough veneer.

I'm planning to use mortise and tenon joinery to attach the aprons to the legs. At this point I'm trying to keep it simple, the legs will be 3-4" square.

My questions are:

What can I use for the substrate for the legs? Is it ok to laminate solid stock together. I know I need to be watching out for expansion/contraction here.
For example would laminating 4 sticks of 11/2"-2" square oak to form the leg be ok and then apply veneer. What about using 4x4 untreated pine.
Just throwing out examples to point me in the right direction.

If I can pull off re-sawing the veneer I'm thinking it will be around 1/8"-3/16" after it is sanded and before it is applied.
I have a wide belt sander so any advice on sanding veneer would be great.

Can I use PVA glue such as tite-bond 3?

I'm hoping to use clamps and cauls as I certainly don't have a vacuum press.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. If I can't pull this off I may just change species for the base or maybe try to source some sass from another part of the country.

Thanks,
Cody

[Chris Padilla]

For starters, in my book, 1/8"+ is NOT veneer. It will still act very much like hardwood in terms of movement. Even 1/16" can still act as hardwood but it is something you can shoot for and it is still strong and easy to handle and use and sand and is approaching veneer. I resawed a bunch of walnut a few years ago for my tansu project and sanded it all to 1/16". Everything went very well. I have a Delta 18/36 drum sander so it is a lot wimpier than your wide belt sander but that is a good thing, perhaps, when it comes to sanding thin pieces of wood.

For a substrate, something like maple or poplar or birch would be a lot better than oak, I think. You want something that approaches MDF in terms of flat and smoothness and tight pores but of course you don't want to use MDF in this case.

Many folks use PVAs for veneering but I like something that dries hard like plastic resin glue. Veneersupplies.com has a glue called Better Bonds that I really like as it kind of acts like a PVA in terms of ease of use and water clean up. I'd recommend that over PVA for veneering. That site also has a lot of useful info that may serve you.

[Cody Armstrong]

Thank you Chris.

So 1/8 is too thick because of? Wood movement and it may split or delaminate? What happens if too thick?

On the maple does it matter whether it is soft or hard?

Thanks for the advice and the link. I actually visited that site before I posted this thread.

[Chris Fournier]

I saw veneer on a regular basis and would agree with Chris for the most part. If you lay up 0.125" veneer on a solid wood core for say a tabletop you would be okay if you built the core properly, basically just remanufacturing a natural plank. I might make a 0.125" table top veneer to withstand rough use but most of my shop sawn veneer is between 0.03125" and 0.0625" and honestly 0.03125" is plenty thick.

If your veneer is thicker like 0.125" it actually has the power to exert its will over the core material. You should carry on with your project as planned. I like poplar for core stock, it's cheap and easy to machine.

[Cody Armstrong]

I'll see what I can get re-sawed tomorrow. Will post progress/failure when I get that far.

Thank ya'll for the help.

[Jamie Buxton]

If you make the leg solid and then veneer it with 1/8" material, you'll see the veneer seam near the corners of the completed leg. To make your leg, here's what I'd do. I'd cut the veneer, and glue it to flat stock -- for instance 4/4 poplar. The fiber direction of the veneer is the same as the substrate, so they'll expand and contract together without much stress. Then I'd cut the veneered stock to have beveled long edges. I'd glue four boards together, likely using the blue tape technique. Or, if you're a glutton for punishment, you can run a lock miter. The primary benefit of this approach is that the seams between the veneer are exactly on the corners of the leg. Your eye already expects a big grain and color shift at the corner, so the seam is really invisible.

[Andrew Hughes]

Hi , Cody I also think you should cut your veneer thinner than 1/8. Only you really know what you can really net from your stock.But I have done some leg veneering and the thinner the better.The seams wiill be smaller.I would also like to suggest rift sawn for the substrate even though it's getting covered rift will hopefully expand and contract evenly.White oak would be at the top of my list than poplar pine fir.Hope this helps Aj

[Cody Armstrong]

To all, thank you for the advice.

I've found a source for 12/4 sass so it's opened up the design options for this table. I wasn't crazy about square legs anyway. I just love how projects evolve. To be continued.....

Thank you again,

Cody