Hi All, I am just curious if anyone has tried to apply a very thin veneer to a rim and if you did how did you do it, how did it turn out and did you do inside an out. I have an old rim I've though about trying. Thanks Larry
Learning a new skill takes time, patience and practice. Also it is very important to stay hydrated
I am in the process of restoring and old English banjo. It has a metal spunover rim with a wooden insert. I replaced the insert with mahogany laminates of appox 2mm thick, cut down from a length of wood. I pre-bent the strips using a paint stripper heat gun round an 11 aluminum Asian banjo rim. When dry bending wood of that thickness ( or thinness) you have to work slow to prevent the wood from cracking under the strain. I did try soaking on strip in water for a while as an experiment. I found no advantage in soaking it. Care also must be taken when inserting the wood inside the rim to prevent it cracking as well. You will need plenty of strong clamps. My advice is that you will need to experiment first with some old strips to get the hang of working with wood like this, but if you take it slow you should get a good result. It is all trial and error. While I realise that my answer doesn't relate to making a whole rim, the principle I the same I feel.
Wayne New Zealand
My short-term memory is not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my short-term memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
I recently applied maple veneer to the inside of an Old Vega tubaphone rim that I was rehabbing. It had a bunch of extra neck bolt holes drilled in it that needed to be plugged. And I was changing the set up to a dowel stick. The first photo is how it looks after the rehab. I painted the outside and bottom of the rim black.
I practiced on a junk rim to get the process right before I started on the Vega rim. I made some curved clamping forms that matched to inside curve of the rim. The rim was a little taller than 1 3/4 so I glued some hunks of 2x4 together and cut a circle that fit inside the rim. I spun the wood on a point into my band saw to cut a nice smooth circle. Then I cut sections off the outside of the wood circle all the way around. I used these as clamping cauls, shown in these two photos.
I cut the veneer strip wider than the rim was tall and long enough to overlap a little when placed on the inside of the rim. I applied Tite-Bond to both the veneer and the rim. Clamped the veneer down using the cauls all the way around leaving a little room to get at the overlap. I used a sharp knife to cut through both layer of veneer at the overlap. When I removed the overlapping pieces the ends matched up nicely and I clamped down the last caul with a hunk of waxed paper over the seam. The seam is under the dowel stick neck mounting hardware. You can do the outside the same way. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Dan in Minneapolis
"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing; if you can fake that, you've got it made." Groucho Marx
There are really thin veneers available, some with cloth and paper backing. Try Constantine's in NYC. http://www.constantines.com/index.a...Category=166 They are the oldest company in that business. They have developed their own veneer glue, which is a "contact" type glue. You have many many choices of wood for veneering.
If you are going to veneer around a rim, you have 2 options - having the grain run horizontally, or vertically. Horizontal is the traditional way, but vertical would be MUCH easier to bend.
The old Vegas and Fairbanks models had a piece of tortoise-shell celluloid binding inside the rim top and bottom as trim
A man wouldn't need many plastic heads in a lifetime.
I got my maple veneer from Rockler. They sell good sized sheets for not a lot of money. The stores don't have them. You have to order them to be mailed to you.
Dan in Minneapolis
"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing; if you can fake that, you've got it made." Groucho Marx
That's a really nice job on that pro pot! As you know, I'm working on the same kind of thing, but am currently slowed down by Thanksgiving family visit kitchen cabinet issues. The bad thing is that woodworking skills can be used for banjo construction or kitchen cabinets.
I'll post pictures when I can actually finish it, definitely, after Thanksgiving.
Great work!
Ken
A man wouldn't need many plastic heads in a lifetime.
That's a really nice job on that pro pot! As you know, I'm working on the same kind of thing, but am currently slowed down by Thanksgiving family visit kitchen cabinet issues. The bad thing is that woodworking skills can be used for banjo construction or kitchen cabinets.
I'll post pictures when I can actually finish it, definitely, after Thanksgiving.
Great work!
Ken
A man wouldn't need many plastic heads in a lifetime.
Check out Veneersupplies.com. They have the most amazing selection of wood you have ever seen. I don't trust titebond on veneer it can easily warp and bubble the wood. Lately I have been using epoxy but with epoxy you need a good clamping set up due to the slow drying time especially at the edges where the wood pulls away. I have applied veneer with slow CA. I apply glue to a 4" section hold it on by hand ,count to 100 ,then start again on the next 4" and so on. If your in a hurry and don't want to mess with clamps and fixtures CA is the way to go. Veneer is cheap if you botch it just start again... Bob.
Uncle "woodworking skills can be used for banjo construction or kitchen cabinets" Don't I know it? I've got pile a sapele mahogany that keeps reminding me that she-who-must-be-obeyed wants a new head board for the bed. Well, it will have to be next year because it's getting too cold to work in the garage and there's no room in the basement because of my lathe and banjo stuff.
Dan in Minneapolis
"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing; if you can fake that, you've got it made." Groucho Marx
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Putting veneer on a rim
Posted - 11/04/2009 : 09:27:51
