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Bryce
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The answer to your questions are yes and no. First, the contact glue you mention and carpenter's glue are two totally different kinds of glue for (perhaps) totally different uses depending on end use requirements. Let me explain. Your contact glue is technically called an "elastomeric" adhesive. It is "elastic" and always will remain so until it breaks down from ultraviolet degradation, crystylization, or effects due to other reasons. In your [wood] veneer work, especially on large surfaces, you may get the dreaded delamination and bubbles far too frequently. It is not the recommended adhesive to use in veneering. HOWEVER,(and here is a yes maybe part)contact glue is most often used [double spread] by millwork shops for the purpose of veneer edgebanding [usually] MDF panels where the width of edgebanding does not exceed approximately 2". They use it because it's fast and cheap, and as I've said before, millwork is not usually required to stand the test of time. Veneering by conventional press or by vacuum, and using a "thermosetting" adhesive, such as a urea formaldehyde, is certainly one acceptable method. Another method, by the same pressing methods, is to use a good cross-linking PVA "thermoplastic" adhesive such as your carpenter's or white adhesives. As far as the "ironing" technique is concerned, I have had experience with that in a millwork shop where I worked. Due to a production screw-up and no time to remanufacture the drawers, four 36" X 6" drawer fronts had to be reveneered with maple. No one had ever tried it but I was asked if I thought it could be done. (Someone had actually seen a write-up on the technique in Fine Woodworking.) The key to the technique is that it can only be done with "thermoplastic" adhesives, i.e., the adhesives can be resoftened by heat. I generously applied the adhesive to both mating surfaces and allowed a specific "open window" of time for them to dry before positioning and starting to apply heat. If you heat is too high, or you are too slow you will be successful at giving your veneer a deep and permanent scorch with the iron. Start in the middle of your panel and iron out the slight waves and undulations toward the edges and outer corners. With some practice I think you could be quite skilled in a short time. This is nothing really than a variation on the old hammer-veneering technique. Although nothing really substitutes for real work experience and experimentation, I must encourage many of you newbies to search out some good technically related books and start building a library. You will find within the pages a lot of neat stuff that kind of gives you a good theoretical foundation that a lot of the tips, techniques, and success stories are based on. This is just fact.
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