Dave Carter
Posts: 15
Joined: 2012-01-25
Location: Hendersonville, NC
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I have a project that will require some 7/8 – 1.0” thick plywood panels with complex curves and one side to be face veneer. Each panel will be 30” X 16”. The panels need to be very stiff and have no voids. In use, the panels will have little support to maintain their shape.
Several times in the past I have made my own high quality flat thin plywood for special projects by vacuum bagging layers of standard veneer and unibond. It has worked great. For these projects I built the plywood thickness up by starting in the middle of the thickness and bonding “alternating grain direction” layers out to the finished size. Keeping it all balanced and always ending with an odd number of total layers.
However for this project I would like to build a form for each curved shape. Then start vacuum bag layering the veneer onto the form in maybe about three layers at a time (per 1 day vacuum bag cycle), working up to the final thickness and a top layer of face veneer. Because of the thickness, I would also like to use either 1/16” or even 1/10” veneer. (For the 1/10” I would resaw and planner finish hard maple or poplar). None of the curves are sharp radiuses so ther is no problem bending. The minimum bend radius is 23.8”.
My questions are:
1. Does anyone see a problem in making plywood by adding “alternate grain direction” layers working up to final thickness from one side only over the course of about 9 - 13 layers and over the course of 3 – 5 days?
2. By the time I add the final top layers, the bottom unibond layers will be well cured. Will that tend to warp the plywood as the top layers cure?
3. Any other problems in making large curved plywood panels?
Thanks,
Dave
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