Applying Veneer

[NickCormier]

Hey, I just bought a big piece of Veneer im planning on putting on the top of a guitar.. I sanded down the guitar, and now when I unrolled the veneer, it came in a big piece, not sheets.. The veneer is not totally flat.. so I just put it under some weight to see if it will flatten down abit, but I have my doubts that it will be flat enough for glueing on..

Now I read somewhere, think on PG here that some veneer's are done using a vacuum, so the veneer is flat to the wood. Im not sure how to do this, and not sure I have the materials. so is there any other way to make sure the veneer is flat against the wood? I also saw that theres a Veneer flattening roller thing, not sure if thats what I would need at this point but im so lost lol this is my first project guitar

Anyone able to help? Thanks

[WezV]

You basically need a large flat clamping caul that covers the entire top of the guitar, not as good as a vacuum but passably in the home workshop situation. The caul needs to be dead flat and thick enough so it wont distort. I have had good results using an off cut from a kitchen worktop, the kind thats 2" thick chipboard with a plastic veneer on it. I use a sheet of greaseproof paper between the veneer and caul to make sure it doesnt stick. I also put an extra caul that goes along the middle of the body to make sure that the worktop isnt bending at all. If someone is having a kitchen fitted near you see if you can get he sink cutout from the new worktop, should be just about the right size.

[eldiabloguitars]

I read in one of the tutorials listed right here, that one gentleman simply used a 50 pound plastic garbage bags filled with sand or gravel or whatever type of material is fine enough to spread evenly and not ding th guitar. I imagine sand is easy enough to get....even obtainable in pet stores. It's a cheaper home remedy ig you don't have the tools. Just be sure to carefully lay the bag down so as to not break the veneer or have it slide if you are going to use the bag to weigh down the veneer during application. Just a thought and most likely the way I would attempt it if I didn't have the tools or proper clamps.

[Drak]

While I'm certainly not trying to rain on your parade, I've said this before and I'll say it again:

The ART of veneering is not an easy one to learn. Men do this professionally for a living and make big money doing it, the ones that are GOOD at it, it is not something you can pick up on a Sunday afternoon and be good at it.

Attempting a veneer job for your very first guitar project to me is like learning to swim by diving off the deep end of the pool.

You need to learn a LOT more than how to get bumps out.

Use the search engine, type in keywords like veneer, glueboard, humps, tape, and each time define with my name (Drak), choose 'today', then 'older' (which means your searching the entire contents basically), choose 'show as posts', and remember there may be several pages to each word selected, the pages will show at the bottom left corner.

You'll be reading for awhile, but this will get you motivating in the right direction, and you'll read far more about veneer than you even know to ask yet. Please let whatever you find in there lead you to select more search criteria afterwards, like start choosing 'show as topics' instead of 'show as posts' so you can read the entire thread in some circumstances when you want to, which should lead you to other good stuff.

I'm just trying to get you pointed in the right direction.

And if you go to the PG front page, there IS a tutorial on applying veneer, read that too.