RogerM wrote:My downfall came from talking to "Woodbloke"
which is always an expensive experience. The biggest spend comes if you want to cut your own veneers. Assuming you already have a decent bandsaw, a drum sander (in my case a Jet 16-32) is a real game changer.
Always a mistake Rog, you should know better by now
As I mentioned above Mike, if you're aiming to produce
accurate 1.5mm thick Bog Oak veneers, you'll need to spend some folding. As Rog says above, you need a
decent quality bandsaw that will saw veneers to the width of your p/t as this will generally be the widest that you can cut.
That's only half the story 'cos they won't be spot on thickness...a bit thicker here and a bit thinner in other places, plus you'll only have one side that's planed; the other will be off the bandsaw which then makes it bloody difficult to match, let alone glue down. To do a proper job, you
must (no question about it) drum sand them to an even thickness of your choice (1.5>2mm).
You also then have to invest in a system to enable long edges to be shot in for joining.
Rog has gone down the 'economic' road to lay and glue them, but however you slices it, vacuum pressing is the way that most (not all) hobbyists lay them. Having used one in the trade, years ago I bought an
AirPress kit and have recently upgraded it with a very expensive polyurethane bag. This is unquestionably the finest gear on the market for this sort of work and Peter Hoggard, the MD (his place is no more that 20 mins from me) has sold a huge amount of equipment to Bentley and RR.
Now that you've got this stash of Bog Oak secreted away in some dark corner
, if you want to get the best out of it and make it go a lot further, then you need (as Custard rightly said) to get into veneering and there ain't no cheap and easy fix - Rob