Check out part 1 here if you haven’t seen it

On to part 2

Now that the box is all together it needs to be veneered.  This process is nearly identical to how I veneer my speaker boxes and can be used for a lot of different things.

First thing is first for veneer you need a pretty uniform substrate.  The top of this humidor has an MDF panel and spanish cedar edges, any gaps need to be filled with a filler of your choice as long as it dries hard I prefer spot putty from an auto parts store.

Spot putty in place

This stuff goes on like spackle and dries rock hard.  Another thing that needs to be addressed before applying the veneer is the fact that spanish cedar is pretty porous and will soak in most of the glue from veneering.  Because of this we will need to seal in the entire box with a glue-water 50/50 mix painted on with a foam brush.  I also have to take this step when making speakers because of the porous end grain sections in mdf.  This step is really easy just get the glue-water mixture to a watery consistency and paint on 3 coats or so with a foam brush.

when you’re done sand the now coarse surface lightly with a 220-320 grit sanding block and you should pretty quickly have a very hard surface.  If you dont notice the surface being much smoother and harder than before make sure to add another coat.  Also if you have any runs or high spots make sure to get them out this will make the veneer not stick to the surface as well.

Next Veneer selection:  I’ve purchased pretty much all of my wood veneers from theveneerstore.com they have an incredible selection and great prices.  Recently I have purchased a pretty nice bandsaw w/ a resaw king blade so I may try and cut a few of my own for this project.  Either way i’m using one of these nice burl pieces from the veneer store for my lid

On the left Maple Burl, on the right Walnut burl.  Burl veneer is often very wavy…..just how it is because of the grain structure so it will need to be sprayed with a veneer softener and pressed.  Some other figured veneers or wavy veneers may need this process as well so I will walk you through the steps.

I haven’t really investigated into other veneer softeners but this one has always worked well so there really hasn’t been a need.  Basically just follow the instructions and you’ll get good results with this product.  They are as follows

1. Lightly spray both sides of the veneer with veneer softener-Try to spray both sides as evenly as possible as you know if  wood absorbs moisture unevenly it will bend

2. Let veneer air out for 30 minutes-if you can hang the veneer on something with good ventilation on both sides, a wire rack, clothes pin etc

3. Press overnight between two pieces of plywood- for really stubborn veneers you can also apply some weight

Step 2 air out veneer for 30 mins

Place between two pieces of plywood

I have a large flat workbench with a formica top so i just laid them on that and placed a piece of flat mdf on top as well as a little weight to hold everything down.  Just wait overnight and then you should have flat veneers.  If they aren’t completely flat after this repeat the process.  The key to this is make sure both sides receive the same amount of moisture and dry out at roughly the same rate or they will warp.

Just let it sit overnight.

Please check out part 3 here