Don Stephan
Posts: 825
Joined: 2003-07-18
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
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I've never seen a flattening receipe using urea glue . . .
Regarding an almost dry burl, if not fully dry it will begin to curl, ripple, and lots of other nasty things almost immediately after being removed from pressure. If the burl needs to be trimmed/assembled with other veneers/. . . it will quickly become to "unflat" to use, long before under pressure in the vacuum press.
My suggestion would be to try flattening some veneer, expose it to ambient air when you think it's ready, and see what happens.
I thought the surrounding sheets of paper were staying bone dry so I thought the olive ash burl veneer was fully dry. As I trimmed and taped into two-sheet matches, I found it was becoming un-flat but didn't know what that implied. I applied white glue to its back as well as the substrate, misted the front with water, and when the glue was dry began ironing the veneer onto the substrate as described in a FWW article by Mario Rodriguez. Don't know when it started, but the next day I found parts of some well-taped seams had separated up to 1/16" due to veneer shrinkage.
I don't plan to use PVA and an iron for anything more than dead flat dry tabletop edging in the future. Also purchased a moisture meter to be able to track moisture levels in the future when flattening veneer. Haven't had to use flattening solution since that episode several years ago, but don't want that nightmare again.
Whatever you decide, I'd suggest full-bore testing before starting the actual project.
My two cents.
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