Glues for veneers.

seahorse1877

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I started my first couple of sets of veneers with Med. Cyno. Then after glue lines I switched to Tightbond II wood glue. I still get dark lines at the veneer points. My question is if I use Elmers White glue: 1. Is is strong enough and 2. Will it not leave any visible lines. Maybe the glue is not my problem in this whole process but I am just curious. Any help and tips would be greatly appretiated. Thanks in advance.
 
Hi,

Titebond should not give you any lines no matter what the colors or wood are in your cue.

Is your point stock square to the grooves perfect? Get a precision square and check to see if there is any gap when you the the faces with the gauge. If so you need a small joiner for squaring the points 90 degrees all the way around.

I don't know how your clamping the veneers but that would be another area to look at.

Points are real easy to do once you get your process tuned in. You are very close. The devil is in the details.

Good Luck,

Rick G
 
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Hi,

I agree with Trent and use west system for gluing the units into the cue. I only use tightbond to glue up the veneer stacks.

Of course it is just one way to do it.

Rick
 
I started my first couple of sets of veneers with Med. Cyno. Then after glue lines I switched to Tightbond II wood glue. I still get dark lines at the veneer points. My question is if I use Elmers White glue: 1. Is is strong enough and 2. Will it not leave any visible lines. Maybe the glue is not my problem in this whole process but I am just curious. Any help and tips would be greatly appretiated. Thanks in advance.

It all depends on what you are talking about for gluing veneers. I use 3 different glues when doing veneer work. One type for gluing the individual veneers together, another type when gluing the mitered halves together and another type when gluing the mitered veneer stack into the prong. They all have their distinct advantages for the job they need to perform.

DSC_0001-14.jpg


Dick
 
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It all depends on what you are talking about for gluing veneers. I use 3 different glues when doing veneer work. One type for gluing the individual veneers together, another type when gluing the mitered halves together and another type when gluing the mitered veneer stack into the prong. They all have their distinct advantages for the job they need to perform.

DSC_0001-14.jpg


Dick

I wanna be able to do that! I love the veneered points on that cue, and someday Im gonna be able to do that too. Ill remember the glue pointers. Thanks for sharing Dick.

Joe
 
Thanks for the replies, I think my problem lies in how I clamp my veneers to the point stock. I can only stack my veneers right now so I think that is my problem. Thanks.
 
If your doing stacked veneers I used titebond 2 and didn't have any problems with glue lines. I use sort of a book press when clamping the veneers down so it applies even pressure on the whole piece.
 
I started my first couple of sets of veneers with Med. Cyno. Then after glue lines I switched to Tightbond II wood glue. I still get dark lines at the veneer points. My question is if I use Elmers White glue: 1. Is is strong enough and 2. Will it not leave any visible lines. Maybe the glue is not my problem in this whole process but I am just curious. Any help and tips would be greatly appretiated. Thanks in advance.

Hi Horse:
Super glue doesn't belong in any part of cue construction. I agree with Dick, except I use 4 different glues, I use Titebond extends on my stacked or overlapped method. If you are stacking, your problem may be, it's not as flat as you think it is.


IMG_1461copycopy.jpg
 
Hi,

Great points shown here and very cool details shared there Mike.

I glue my points around the block and don't miter them and use a granite surface plate to flat sand the veneers after routering off the edges. Guess where I am going with my next set of points, "the jointer".

Thanks for sharing that awesome refined detail. You Da Man!:clapping:

Some people, not all, who collect cues seem to promote the idea that if you don't miter your points that it is second class citizenship for some reason. I for one find that if you are very careful in milling your grooves,are meticulous in squaring your points and consistent in the amount of glue and clamping pressure used making the point veneers that you can eliminated the line gap that is not mitered. I have done this many times but 100% repeatability has not been achieved yet in my shop. I never thought about putting the unit through the jointer but I think it is the tits even before I try it.

In the end the miter guys and the around the point guy are all striving for the same detail, no glue line at the veneer joining transition zone. Once you get that who cares because you are at points nirvana.

Rick G

PS, I agree with your super glue statement except for gluing tips and people who know how to use it for finishing. Also JMHO. My friend cue maker Todd Schaller finishes his cues with superglue and I admit I had a negative bias against that type of behavior because I have spent years working on spaying Polyurethane Automotive and will not change. But after becoming friends with Todd, he has showed me that there is more than one way to skin a cat because he has refined his method to reach a very beautiful high luster very clear durable finish. I was biased because I saw so many real bad finishes done using super glue, even by some noteworthy CMs. Todd takes it to a very high level and made a believer out of me for sure. Still staying with poly though.:love:
 
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Hi,

Great points shown here and very cool details shared there Mike.

I glue my points around the block and don't miter them and use a granite surface plate to flat sand the veneers after routering off the edges. Guess where I am going with my next set of points, "the jointer".

Thanks for sharing that awesome refined detail. You Da Man!:clapping:

Some people, not all, who collect cues seem to promote the idea that if you don't miter your points that it is second class citizenship for some reason. I for one find that if you are very careful in milling your grooves,are meticulous in squaring your points and consistent in the amount of glue and clamping pressure used making the point veneers that you can eliminated the line gap that is not mitered. I have done this many times but 100% repeatability has not been achieved yet in my shop. I never thought about putting the unit through the jointer but I think it is the tits even before I try it.

In the end the miter guys and the around the point guy are all striving for the same detail, no glue line at the veneer joining transition zone. Once you get that who cares because you are at points nirvana.

Rick G

PS, I agree with your super glue statement except for gluing tips and people who know how to use it for finishing. Also JMHO. My friend cue maker Todd Schaller finishes his cues with superglue and I admit I had a negative bias against that type of behavior because I have spent years working on spaying Polyurethane Automotive and will not change. But after becoming friends with Todd, he has showed me that there is more than one way to skin a cat because he has refined his method to reach a very beautiful high luster very clear durable finish. I was biased because I saw so many real bad finishes done using super glue, even by some noteworthy CMs. Todd takes it to a very high level and made a believer out of me for sure. Still staying with poly though.:love:

Thanks Rick:
Super glue finish is totally different than actual construction. On Veneers, I have always defended both methods, Mitered and stacked, I do both methods, and can define them. At the end of the day, we construct hand crafted cues, I'm okay with that. For the jointer, get the gauge they sell at woodcraft, It's the best hundred bucks, I ever spent. You can get those blades, dead nuts, and control how much you actually cut.

The black is not a paper veneer, It's a .022 run across the jointer shaved down to a .014 to look like a paper veneer.
IMG_1330-1.jpg
 
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Thanks Rick:
Super glue finish is totally different than actual construction. On Veneers, I have always defended both methods, Mitered and stacked, I do both methods, and can define them. At the end of the day, we construct hand crafted cues, I'm okay with that. For the jointer, get the gauge they sell at woodcraft, It's the best hundred bucks, I ever spent. You can get those blades, dead nuts, and control how much you actually cut.

The black is not a paper veneer, It's a .022 run across the jointer shaved down to a .014 to look like a paper veneer.
IMG_1330-1.jpg




Very Nice work. Beautiful Cue there.

Greg
 
Hey Guys,

I love the way Michael shared his veneer trick and as I like to point out, the devil is alway in the details.

After posting last time I was going to say something about someone we all know here.

El Beau.

Just in case you guys don't know Beau is dying and selling veneers. I just recently found out that he has it available in .024 thickness which is very cool for me because I do 5 pointers with veneers and switching from .030 to .024 with drive up the height of my points.

Beau is a great guy and a gentleman and I just wanted to give some info here because it is germane to this thread.

Rick
 
Thanks for the kind words, Rick. Things have been busy but I'm slowly building up inventory.
I've read great things about the One-Way Gauge that Mike recommends. Poor results are often caused by poorly-tuned equipment. Learning how to tune in our machines is frequently neglected.
 
I'm using 3 different glues here, too. Any combination seems to work well if your veneers are flat, your miter is right & your point is square.

The blue veneer is from El Beau. Good stuff! I'm finally trying some of his veneers & am very pleased with the results.
 
Wow!

Thanks Rick:
Super glue finish is totally different than actual construction. On Veneers, I have always defended both methods, Mitered and stacked, I do both methods, and can define them. At the end of the day, we construct hand crafted cues, I'm okay with that. For the jointer, get the gauge they sell at woodcraft, It's the best hundred bucks, I ever spent. You can get those blades, dead nuts, and control how much you actually cut.

The black is not a paper veneer, It's a .022 run across the jointer shaved down to a .014 to look like a paper veneer.
IMG_1330-1.jpg

Wow, that is a beautiful cue. Well Done.
 
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