Bending Veneer Against the Grain

In this video I show the process to bend veneer against (bend perpendicular to the grain) the grain about a 1.25” radius using an iron and the PVA glue technique.

[gregorybeise]

I am going to echo everyone here and say that this is one of the best videos that I have seen here. I had no idea that you could work dried wood glue like this!!! I mean, HOLY COW!!! This has helped me solve a veneering challenge I have had for a curved flat surface that I have just been dreading doing. I tried this the other day and it worked like a charm!!! Thank you so much.

[steves]

Wow, this one little video has just opened up a bunch of doors for me. Number one, I had no clue you could bond dried wood glue with heat. Number two, all the damaged 1940's waterfall furniture and console radios that I've passed over are now eligible for repair. Number three, knowing this technique I can now incorporate curved veneer with grain perpendicular to the curve into the designs of new builds.
Thank you for sharing!!

[dmhmaestrolive]

Today I ironed 2.5mm oak veneer on table ledge... Amazing technique! Thanks! Seems pretty good bond too. Amazing all the thing I have learned.

[icomeinpeace]

This is great. I have a desk I'm going to be building soon and this is exactly what I was trying to figure out. Thanks for the video.

[pauldilorenzo]

Javad - thank you for a GREAT tip on bending veneer - much appreciated!

[donaldwallace]

Thanks for posting this process. I have been looking for a good way to repair vintage radio cabinets with waterfall curves at top front of cabinets. 👍🏻👍🏻

[squeezy]

Great video - got me thinking about using this technique for veneering over a compound dome shape.

[polylight]

Thank you for this! I have an application that will call for 3/4" radius or as close as possible. I will try steam if necessary.

[warp]

Great tip, heat bonding dry pva is a new one to me .

[matthewcurry]

Tha is for this video! Totally saved my bacon on a subwoofer build with rounded corners on the front baffle.

[Afrobandiit]

This video worked perfectly for me. followed step by step and turned out great!
Also worked for concave corner, used a hair straightener instead of the iron for that.

[WadeSmith]

Such a good video. Was looking for this exact information and here you got it

[profiskipinternational]

awesome idea. Thought about to do cross diagonal strip planking to build a rowing boat shell, 4 layers to get 3 mm thickness of total hull wall strength. But I hate expoxy adhesive. This seems an interesting alternative to use paper backed veneer, preppreg it with wood glue, and then just heat it around a core form onto another veneeir layer. And repeat it 2 times to get 4 layers bonded. Interesting technic. Never seen it. Tks for your research, tests and uploading the video.

[unmagicMike]

How - awesome work, much better than the sticky spray, hope you get it right the first time approach

[fearlessfreddy]

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

[SinnerSince]

If you use a wet cotton cloth, you can get the steam to wet the wood and make it more pliable. You can do 1" radius with that method.

[MrBri]

Thanks. Building a set of speakers and researching this very subject. I'll let you know how it goes. Planning on a 1" radius.

[carbidetooth]

Javad, I think we might be kindred spirits! I'm similarly interested ( perhaps obsessed ) with speaker building. FWIW, There is some good reason to use Titebond I for this technique. It has the lowest emulsification temperature of all the Titebonds. I don't have the data in front of me, but at one time did some testing and, particularly with Titebond III, found the emulsification temperature was slightly beyond what the iron could achieve.

[Rebel]

I use a cloth, but my iron is much older and doesn't have the teflon coating on the bottom. Never tried bending it like this before though. I need to bend some at a 45 degree offset for some trim pieces on a 1930's RCA K-80 console radio.

[modeler]

Once you heat the surface with the iron its very important to burnish the surface as it cools! Use the edge of a 2x4 until it cools otherwise, your bond will have air pockets.and on your video you can see the edges are NOT adhering properly.