Help! Veneer Problem.

I believe you over heated the panel. The plywood substraight got hot and split, or opened splits in it. I have stopped using the lousy plywood the home stores carry now. MDF makes for a solid veneer surface. Use a heat gun instead of an iron and see if you can heat and shift the two outside sections back into place and close the cracks.

-- Dan-- Info for all @ http://www.hoistman.com

Yup, it looks like a very wide piece of veneer. How wide is it? The heat shrunk the veneer probably as you were putting it on. Did you see or hear this as you were applying heat? Did you go slow with the iron and fully adhere a small section before moving on? It’s not like ironing clothes were you move the iron on the whole thing till it’s done. Start in the middle and move slowly in a very small circle about 12 inches and move out only when the circle is stuck good but not over heated. If it is a smaller piece like a cabinet door insert then you can start at one end and go back and forth across the short end and work your way down the board. With heat lock you can remove by starting at one end and heat it until it frees and slip something thin like a piece of plastic laminate between it and move down the sheet till it is all free. Put it on the bench and do a repair and then re-apply. You will notice how slowly you will need to go to remove it so that will give you a good idea on how slow you should go to re-apply it. It should be shrunk enough to put it back down with out the same problem again.

-- Mike, Westport MA.

I see that is birdseye. Was the veneer flat before you applied it. Not kinda flat, but flat. When working with high figure veneer where there is no real grain direction, it is important to flatten your sheet prior to gluing. I make a wash of veneer softener and soak the sheets till they are fully saturated. Then stack them with brown paper bags or kraft paper in between sheets, clamped flat. Change the paper daily untill the veneer is dry. It should then be plyable and completely flat and ready to work. This is the number one overlooked step in doing any veneer work. You can also buy commercially available veneer softners if you dont want to make your own.

-- http://www.efcabineture.com/ You can be tired, or you can be broke, but you should never be tired and broke.