[Effingham]

Hey, guys. I seek the voice of wisdom and experience from the woody hive mind here.

I'm getting ready to build a replica old-time ice box to use as a liquor cabinet. Specifically, this one:

I'm building it out of red oak -- at least all the rails and splines and so on. The panels? Well, despite the image Rockler uses, the plans call for plywood panels in the doors and sides. I don't mind using a good birch plywood for the back, bottom, and internals, but I want the face of the panels to match, and take the same stain the same way.

I can't find 3/8" red oak ply around here, so I've been debating between either using 1/4" birch ply with an overlay of red oak veneer (as the instructions suggest) or having 6" wide 4/4 planks resawn in half, glued up into wider panels, and then planed down to 3/8".

Either is doable, but I lack re-saw facilities and don't want to plane down 4/4 all the way to 3/8" -- what a waste.

Rockler and Woodcraft both have paper-backed veneer (WC at 1/42" and R at 1/62" -- I prefer the thicker stuff), and self-adhesive. Would those be okay for a project such as this?

Barring that... is there anyone here in the central Indiana (Franklin, Greenwood, Indianapolis) who might be willing to resaw some planks for me in return for some dead president portraits and beer?

Tony

 

[Dave Paine]

I am not fond of such thin veneer, mostly since it is too easy to sand through, even when you are trying hard to be careful.

The concept of ply with decent thickness of wood glued on top should work - it worked for me when I made these pantry doors.

3/4 birch ply with poplar glued on top for the fake rails, styles and panels.

Not a good picture since this was our first digital camera and it had a lot of barrelling at wide angle.

If you are not able to find someone locally to cut the red oak, I will be happy to help out.

1/4in or 3/8in pieces should not be too expensive to ship.

 

[cabinetman]

Red Oak ¼" ply works out good for panels. If you want it thicker, glue up 2...back to back.

.

 

[Midlandbob]

I do quite a bit of resawn veneer onto birch ply to make stable table tops etc. I work on the principle that the thickest veneer that can be glued and restrained from movement(expansion and contraction) is 1/7 a 1/8 th inch. It will vary with the type of wood and whether it is quarter or flat cut but thicker wood has a lot of forces with any change of humidity.
It is also important to put the veneer on both sides of the substrate though secondary pieces can be used on hidden areas.
Planeing to 1/7 th is easy on the sharp cheap 12 inch planers. I use a platen of 3/4 inch melamine or arbourite on the planer to provide a larger support, feed area.
I get the resaw blades from highland woodworking as they cut well and cleanly. Jointing is done with a shooting board and #5-#8 plane.
RHB

 

[Steve Neul]

If it were me I would use 1/4" oak plywood for the panels. The plywood will be more stable than the solid wood panels. Veneering is an option but I don't have faith in peal and press veneer. Any time I veneer I use a resin glue. I don't even like using contact cement except for phenolic back veneers. As far as resawing, most table saws can cut 3" so you could resaw a board 5 7/8" wide by cutting half way through and turning it over but unless your 4/4 is oversized you might end up with 1/4" anyway.

 

[Effingham]

Thanks for the quick replies!

Okay, I've decided to order some 1/4" red oak ply.

I appreciate the advice and offers of help!

 

[bigcouger]

If you use Veneer look for wood on wood Veneer, that's works for me on my table tops an I haven't had a complaint yet