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Veneering Birch ply

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PAC1

Nordic Pine
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I am thinking of making a cupboard 300mm wide from 18mm Birch faced ply as I want it light on the inside. But I want to put cherry veneer on the outside of the two outsides of the cupboard. I keep coming back to this thought that if the cupboard is made using strong joinery and has mid shelves that are properly joined, there is little risk of the plywood bowing because it is not balanced. The structure and narrow width will hold it firm. The doors etc will be solid cherry and any panels in the doors floating 6mm mdf veneered with cherry.
In the UK I cannot find cherry veneered ply only cherry veneered mdf which I do not want to use for the sides of the cupboard.
Am I losing the plot or actually had a good idea?
 
For various parts of my instruments, I but veneer from this supplier, if you fancy veneering the part of the cupboard.

Wood Veneer Hub

I've always found it good quality.
 
Personally, moi, I'd veneer both sides at the same time and use something light (say maple or sycamore) as a balancer. If you veneer one surface only with cherry you may find that the ply will bow which will make the joinery more complex than it needs to be. I do quite a lot of veneering and always regretted when just one side was done, so now, whenever possible, both sides of the substrate are veneered at the same time - Rob
 
Good advice. I could ditch the birch ply and use the saving to veneer reasonable quality plywood on both sides. And still be quids in.
 
Hmmm. Maybe. Part of the benefit of BB ply is that the laminations are usually good quality and have few voids. The cheaper plys also tend to have extremely thin face veneers of meranti, sapele or some such, and are prone to bubbling.

Caveat: I've used a lot of ply, but am not experienced with veneering.
 
I take your point Adrian, but I have had some good beech plywood from my supplier recently. The quality was excellent. I also recently had the chance to re-use some 25 year old meranti plywood along side some new meranti plywood. Wow what a difference both quality and weight. You forget what plywood was. It did have the odd void though. Obviously not going to be using the Chinese stuff.
 
AJB Temple said:
Caveat: I've used a lot of ply, but am not experienced with veneering.
Click to expand...
Almost all glues these days for veneering at the amateur end of the scale use a water based glue and it's that wot causes the the veneer shrink slightly and bow the substrate. If a resin based glue is used that don't contain H20 the problem ceases to exist; I used an excellent two part resin adhesive in 'the trade' decades ago where we could comfortably veneer one side at a time and be pretty confident that when the job came out the hydraulic press it would remain pancake flat - Rob
 
I've got a large amount of veneers that need selling at silly prices.
 
PAC1 said:
I am thinking of making a cupboard 300mm wide from 18mm Birch faced ply as I want it light on the inside. But I want to put cherry veneer on the outside of the two outsides of the cupboard. I keep coming back to this thought that if the cupboard is made using strong joinery and has mid shelves that are properly joined, there is little risk of the plywood bowing because it is not balanced.
Click to expand...
What you propose is technically sound. It's essentially the same technique that's been used on countless drawer fronts for centuries, i.e., a plain drawer box front gussied up with fancy veneers, cross-banding, stringing and cockbeading. Slainte.
 
Richard said:
What you propose is technically sound. It's essentially the same technique that's been used on countless drawer fronts for centuries, i.e., a plain drawer box front gussied up with fancy veneers, cross-banding, stringing and cockbeading. Slainte.
Click to expand...
That is true. Larger scale then any drawer front I have ever done, but as you say the same technique.
 
So the current thinking is to veneer the outside of some beech plywood and have the interior beech. Here are a couple of pictures of the beech ply I have been using. It is only £40 for a sheet of 18mm plyIMG_2699.jpegIMG_2698.jpeg
 
Looks fine. I think that will work well. Is the plan to put a hardwood strip face on the edges?
 
TBH, I will take as much American Cherry as you want rid of, as I have another project next year which will use a lot of AC.
For the current project I have not finalised the width but circa 300 to 330 would do. 4 lengths at 1.2m.
I am also in the market for proper Brazilian Mahogany
 
PAC1 said:
TBH, I will take as much American Cherry as you want rid of, as I have another project next year which will use a lot of AC.
For the current project I have not finalised the width but circa 300 to 330 would do. 4 lengths at 1.2m.
I am also in the market for proper Brazilian Mahogany
Click to expand...
Very sorry but I have neither. I sold my Flame Mahogany veneer a while back.
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/countryman69/,
 
No problem, thanks for looking. Nice clock case.
 
That's top notch work Roger.

I do like flamed wood too. We have a large flamed cabinet in our dining area that is flamed and I think looks stunning when illuminated. Not in fashion now. Hence we bought it for tuppence.
 
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