Posts Tagged ‘ Laminate ’
Ok, so I am entering a drum contest. AT http://www.dfdrumtech.com (drumfoundry’s forum)
The shell below is what I am thinking of entering, also I have been making another shell that has blackbutt on the outer plys, this may become the shell not sure yet, what ever looks better with the hoops.
Im planning on keeping my tutorials going with how to laminated veneer together. and Im trying to work out a better pressure system for the molds, will let you know when its all going good.
I thought I would list a few tips for working with veneer if anyone is having trouble with cutting/gluing veneer. These are a few things I have learnt while working with it all.
1) I Have never needed to use a veneer softener, The flat press will help flatten the veneer. I have read that if the veneer is curling a lot then it maybe helpful to use water or veneer softener.
2) DON’T try to cut the veneer in one go, take a lot of passes.
3) When cutting with the grain, be careful as the blade wants to follow the grain.
4) If you have a 2-ply lamination that your trying to cut. Cut so you are cutting against the grain, this will help stop the blade from sliding.
5) Always use a ruler and when possible clamp it down. This is so you get a very crisp cut.
6) Use a sharp blade, the newer the blade the easier it will be to cut. When the blade gets a little blunt you will need to take more passes to get a good cut.
7) Take it slow. Measuring, cutting etc take it all slow. The quicker you go the more likely you are to tear the veneer.
8 ) When gluing don’t over apply. Apply a small amount of glue evenly to both pieces of veneer you wish to use.
9) Allow ample time for the glue to bond and cure
OK, so I have got the plys to get press completely flat. What I ended up doing was applying glue to both the Horizontal and vertical leaves of veneer. Then when I clamped the MDF together I put a long 90×35 flat on the top and bottom and clamped to that. The glue was also applied thinly.
I put a few into the shell mould last night, but that wasn’t a success. The plys were boned nice and tight, but the seams were awful. That is something that I really need to work on.
I have been looking into why the lamination process isn’t working. SO i tired a few new things the other day. First I reduced the amount of glue dramatically. Secondly i shortened the width of the press boards from about 12″ to 9″ and, Third I alternated the clamp location. It worked a fair bit better. The horizontal leaf had no rippling at all. the other side did have slight rippling so I will try to put glue on the other side to overcome this.
So changing the temperature of the laminating environment didn’t have an impact on the laminating process. I found that there were still some pretty big ripples in the veneer.
I think it is most likely an issue of not enough clamping pressure/not even pressure
OR
too much glue/not evenly applied. The lamination where I used less glue worked better, but there were spots that didn’t bond, which is a problem, but I will just have to make sure there is enough glue next time.
On a positive note the wax paper works great, if any glue seeps out the wax paper wont get stuck and tear, it comes off nicely.
So while I have been making my new mould (which should be finished tomorrow if I get a chance) I have also been playing around with laminating veneer. First of I tried to laminate the plys with a very thin layer of glue. I also clamped for 20 hours and used wax paper.
There was a bit of rippling, not sure if this is due to the temperature (cold) or not clamping, or not enough glue. But the wax paper is so much better than the butter paper, No tearing etc. (the first few pics are of the process)
This morning I have laminated up two more plys. I changed some things with it, I applied a little more glue. This is because when feeling the previous lamination it felt like parts had not bonded. Well I actually used the same amount of glue, but previously I used like a small paint roller to evenly apply the glue (which resulted in a lot of waste as the roller soaked up a lot of glue). I think I may have gone overboard. Also I am going to leave it inside for most of the time to see if temperature plays a part in the process as well. The last 3 pictures are of the glue on the veneer (Titebond III) and it all clamped up.
This morning I shaved off some of the top ply to see how the lay up was. Some of the plys ripped as I was shaving it back. I took about 10 samples to make sure everything was working. There was only one place where the plys didn’t bond properly, that was an issue from lamination in the flat press not the mould.
This is good news as it means that the method I am currently using is working well.
OK so the first process in making the shell is to laminate some veneer together. For this shell I just got some cheap Radiata Pine. To increase the strength of the shell you want to cross laminate the plys. This means that every other ply will have the grain running vertical. Basically to laminate two leaves of veneer together all you do is press them in between two MDF boards. Its pretty simple. Just crank the clamps tight and leave for at least two hours.
After this we cut the laminated ply down to the correct size and dry fit it into the mould. This is to make sure it will fit nicely. I haven’t been able to make a decent seam yet. its still all gappy but each one I’m doing is getting better and better.
After the Plys have been dry fit into the mould I then went along and glued them up. The glue I’m using is called Titebond III. To provide a little bit of help gluing I inserted a gym ball into the mould and pumped it up.
Then after about 6 hours I took the shell out and that was the outcome. It was pretty bad, plys weren’t cut properly, there wasn’t enough internal pressure (need an air compressor) and some of the plys didn’t glue together.
Andy's Drum Building Blog 