Zebrawood dilemma

erich@muttcrew.net

erich@muttcrew.net

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We have a piece of zebrawood veneer that we'd like to use for the headstock veneer on a uke. It's about 0.75 mm thick (just under to 1/32"). Problem is the sheet of veneer is all full of waves and bumps and curves and I can't get it to flatten out. I tried ironing it between two damp layers of cloth yesterday and it seemed to flatten pretty well while the heat was on. But when I took the pressure off it just bubbled up again - with the waves going some other way. Reminds me of bad hair day :(

Has anyone observed this before or do you have any (low tech) suggestions on how to make bad bumpy bubblewood behave?

Thanks, Erich
 
Thanks Dave and Matt. From the description I sounds like the Supersoft flattener is also a glycering solution, so this seems to be the way to go. We'll need to get some plastic screening, but the rest looks fairly simple.
 
erich@muttcrew.net said:
Thanks Dave and Matt. From the description I sounds like the Supersoft flattener is also a glycering solution, so this seems to be the way to go. We'll need to get some plastic screening, but the rest looks fairly simple.
Click to expand...

Way back two or three months ago when Pete kindly deached me with the yew wood uke kit, I bought some yew veneer online, intending to eventually use it on the headstock, same as you. It arrived insanely wavy/warped, same as you're describing, and I bookmarked that page back then. Glad it came in handy for you.
 
As Dave said. Just glue the substrate and clamp with a flat caul and the whole thing will go down as if it had never seen a bubble... I used to make veneered furniture - it's great stuff if glued properly and the most ecological way to exploit a rare resource. very green building.
 
Wow, you guys have guts. I have this terrible notion of cracking noises when the clamps go down. I don't suppose a bit of moisture and heat would be in order - somehow neither seems like a very good ingredient for a gluing job.
 
I'm hoping to bookmatch the two pieces I have, so I thought flattening them might be a good first step to getting it right.
 
Is that Supersoft okay to use on an eventual soundboard. I have some Port Orford Cedar that was slightly bowed. I used steam and an iron to flatten it, glued it up, then thickness sanded it down a bit and the warped shape came back to life. Now I have a soundboard that looks like this "~" when you look down the end grain. I'm wondering whether saturating the soundboard with a glycerin & glue mixture to flatten it will change the sound. Is there another way to flatten the soundboard that anyone knows about?
 
Steiner said:
Is that Supersoft okay to use on an eventual soundboard. I have some Port Orford Cedar that was slightly bowed. I used steam and an iron to flatten it, glued it up, then thickness sanded it down a bit and the warped shape came back to life. Now I have a soundboard that looks like this "~" when you look down the end grain. I'm wondering whether saturating the soundboard with a glycerin & glue mixture to flatten it will change the sound. Is there another way to flatten the soundboard that anyone knows about?
Click to expand...

Try adding bracing and then gluing the top to the uke sides... :)
Works for me!
 
I didn't know if that would be enough to take away the curve. Makes sense though.
 
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