Eliminating Waste - Casting Veneers

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oneula

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I'm just a rookie but after turning hundreds of bodies is just seems like a terrible waste of some very expensive woods going from a 3/4"-1" blank down to a curves of a pen which at most might be 1/16" -1/32" thick at the ends of each tube.

Being that, has anyone attempted to secure veneer to a tube with epoxy and then cast it in clear resin in place of starting with a huge pice of wood and cutting it down.

like shown in this video on joewoodworker;

http://www.veneersupplies.com/product_images/uploaded_images/pg-video-supersoft2.jpg

you can use veneer softener to roll even highly figured burl veneers into very tight rolls which would preshape the veneer to make it easy to warp around a tube. I was thinking of using rolling some already sized burl wood veneers around some 1/4" dowels, then triming these and gluing them with epoxy to some tubes. Then after some very light sanding, sealing , it seems like you could cast on some clear resin using a resin saver mold and turn the clear resin down to the fiished pen shape versus aving allot of wood chips, shavings and dust going onto your shop vac and trash.

Also seems like you wouldn't have to go through the need for stabilization for you have to do some of the more exotics to prevent blowouts.

I did some pen body casts using rice paper with exotic japanese prints called "washi" to get one of these polymer clay looks and it seems to work out fine. So I was just wondering if anyone had tried doing this same technique with real burl wood veneers and if there's anything I need to worry about like finishing the wood or softener contamination before I give it a go.

In any case I'll post my results
 
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As one who started as a bowl turner I thought I was being responsible by doing pens since there was SO much less waste than in a bowl blank.

I see one obvious problem with veneer being how limited you would be by not being able to use some of the unusual piece of wood that result in great figure, burl, etc since they do not do well in a veneer process.
 
Seams!!!!!!!!!! That is one big turn off. Besides a pen blank is not that much waste. Getting venners with any character to them would not be easy to form and adhere to a tube well. Hey if you got some veneers give it a try and report back to the group with your findings.
 
another down side is the seam that is made when gluing the veneer to the tube.

Another is many veneers don't like to flex enough to wrap a tube.

Is it possible? yes. is it easy? no. is it perfect? no. But give it a try.
 
Whlie very doable, in my opinion the extra work of getting the veneer to look just right with no seam then casting acrylic around the veneer and tube would not be worth the effort unless it was a very rare and expensive piece of wood.

Keep in mind you don't have use a 3/4" or 1" sq blank to make a pen! It always amazes me to see turners grab a 1" sq "Jumbo" blank to make a pen with a finished diameter of .560" or less, now that's a waste!

The most common excuse is "I'm more comfortable drilling a larger blank". To that I would say "Cut up a cheap pine 2x4 and practice drilling". :biggrin:

I also think having to stabilize everything is much over rated too (of course those selling the stabilized wood might disagree!)

Personally, I would opt for finding small burls and/or "bowl blanks" and cutting them to the size I need.
 
I have done many (pen) blanks using veneers. Not via the "casting" method but using adhesives. I currently have the "twisted" rope veneer done, but it just doesn't have enough of a "wow" factor for me to put in the SOYP section. YMMV
 
oneula said:
I'm just a rookie but after turning hundreds of bodies is just seems like a terrible waste of some very expensive woods going from a 3/4"-1" blank down to a curves of a pen which at most might be 1/16" -1/32" thick at the ends of each tube.
Click to expand...
Your entire idea seems to be redicated on the above statement. The way I look at it is that the cost of a pen blank is the cost of a hunk of material to make one pen. It doesn't much matter how much stuff I cut away to make a pen, the only part that I am paying for is the bit that I leave behind. The rest, they gave me for free.
 
I routinly use blanks that are less the the typical 3/4 or 1" in size. I'll do slims with a 1/2 blank.

But if all that wasted saw dust really buggs you too much, cast it in the clear resin. It looks pretty good, and it allows for some custom "wood" blanks.
 
I do not know
these veneers once wetted would probably look as good as anything I've seen posted.

Wood-Veneer-Sample-Pack-15-Sqr-Ft-of-Burl.html

http://www.veneersupplies.com/products/Wood-Veneer-Sample-Pack-15-Sqr-Ft-of-Burl.html#

I agree with the seams like the shell veneer glue ups being the biggest problem but getting the veneers to bend after using the softener solution and heat seems to work.

Based off of what I've seen and read about how to repair burl end chip outs and blow outs using dust and CA glue it seems like the thing to do would be to purposely leave a gap and then use the CA glue/dust process to hide the seam although the grain might get screwed up.

I thought this was funny though:

"Your entire idea seems to be redicated on the above statement. The way I look at it is that the cost of a pen blank is the cost of a hunk of material to make one pen. It doesn't much matter how much stuff I cut away to make a pen, the only part that I am paying for is the bit that I leave behind. The rest, they gave me for free."

I was just told by some new clients that they would prefer getting a slim line version of a pen made out of the same bling-bling material because if its skinnier/smaller it should be cheaper. They don't care what material its made out of or how much the original blanks cost or started out as, they are just looking at the what they are getting in the end product and a smaller pen should cost less than a bigger pen even if the blank cost the same. Size really matters I guess..

I'll try it and report back.
 
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oneula said:
I thought this was funny though:

"Your entire idea seems to be redicated on the above statement. The way I look at it is that the cost of a pen blank is the cost of a hunk of material to make one pen. It doesn't much matter how much stuff I cut away to make a pen, the only part that I am paying for is the bit that I leave behind. The rest, they gave me for free."

I was just told by some new clients that they would prefer getting a slim line version of a pen made out of the same bling-bling material because if its skinnier/smaller it should be cheaper. They don't care what material its made out of or how much the original blanks cost or started out as, they are just looking at the what they are getting in the end product and a smaller pen should cost less than a bigger pen even if the blank cost the same. Size really matters I guess..

I'll try it and report back.
Click to expand...
On one hand, we would charge less for the slimlin with the upgraded wood, simply because we charge less for slims than we do for larger pens, all things being equal. Beyond that, I just use that conversation as a chance to talk to the customer further about material selection, prep, etc. This is a good thing as conversations tend to turn into sales. (I'll admit that some long convos end w/out sales and some sales pop up so fast that you wonder where the customer came from.)
 
Couldn't you hide the seam by not cutting it straight (follow the grain pattern) and overlapping it? Glue it to the tube and then sand it down a bit. Just thinking about how I've done it with Marquetry in a single plane but I'd think it would work in the round as well.

Any thoughts on using a printed piece of paper (hires laser, not inkjet) instead?
 
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