Brian Gray
Posts: 339
Joined: 2004-01-21
Location: Sandusky, OH
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Actually, I just finished up a speaker project involving marquetry.
http://www.briangray.net/projectdetail.cfm?ProjectID=26
I built the boxes first on this project, and then pressed them in the vacuum press under low pressure so as not to crush the boxes, or cause them to bow in spots. Notice, however, that my speakers are pretty small at 11 x 7 x 11. I don't think that I could get away with this with bigger speakers.
I will be building more speakers in the future, and I don't recommend putting the boxes in the press assembled like I did. My plan next time is to press the panels flat all in one pressing, and then assemble. Even if I had existing boxes, I think that I would completely rebuild them and start from scratch.
Rather than worrying about the transition from veneer edge to veneer edge, my plan is to put hardwood strips around all the edges as you see in the photos above. It's a lot easier this way. You also wouldn't have to worry about your curves and smoothly wrapping veneer around them. You could do the transitions out of hardwood, and treat the edges however you want.
My plan for joinery is to do rabbets. I will make sure that the rabbets will be slightly smaller that the hardwood strip where the plywood ends are exposed. Then when I remove the material on all the edges to fit the hardwood strips, I will eliminate all existing exposed plywood. This allows me to press all the panels flat in one pressing. Does this make sense? Doing the joinery like this will save me a lot of time, and I can still use the advantages of the vacuum press, rather than a mechanical press, or worry about veneering the transitions from panel to panel. Let me know if this is not clear.
This is just one strategy of many....take my ideas for what they are worth.
bg
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