When I returned to Bocas and my friends Kim and Bryan at Cabana Beach Condos pointed out a new 42” flat screen TV they had purchased while I was gone. But there was just one problem with it. It didn’t fit the TV stand in their living room. Every other flat screen TV I’ve seen, at least in that size range, has had a center pedestal for placing it on a counter top. Well, not this one. It has two smaller legs located at each end of the screen, and they were spaced too far apart to sit on the surface of the TV stand. Temporarily, Bryan had simply taken a piece of wood, long enough to accommodate the width of the TV legs and simply laid it on top of the stand. Ahha! I can fix that! I’ll simply find a larger piece of wood and cut out a new counter top to replace the current one.
I started by first contacting my resident wood working expert, Jay Tremblay, who can do anything first class on a boat. Especially out of wood. “Where in Bocas del Toro can I get specialty woods, like Maple, or Mahogany, or some other hard wood?” I’m sure after picking himself up off the floor, he replied. “Not going to happen’” “You’d probably have to go to Panama City or order something from the States.” “But”, he continued, “I have a large piece of Ash veneer in my shop that was bought and paid for by someone and never used that you’re welcome to use.” Well I’d never done anything like that before so I thought it would be fun to give it a go.
I next purchased a sheet of ½” marine plywood to insure minimal warpage. From that sheet of plywood I cut two pieces a little larger than I needed for the counter top which needed to be 38” long by 18” deep by 1” thick. Not having clamps of sufficient size to clamp the two pieces of plywood together while the glue dried, I used several short wood screws to do the job. I later removed the screws and filled the holes they left and sanded everything smooth. This would provide a good bonding surface for the veneer later. I next cut the counter top to its final dimension and using my belt sander bolted sideways to my workbench I made sure the edge was exactly 90 degrees to the top surface. I also used this to form the curved corners of the top. The forward corners of the counter I was making had about a 2” radius curve. You wouldn’t want a square, sharp corner that you could potentially bump into while walking by.
While I was doing this, I was also researching veneer gluing techniques and trying to locate a local source for the proper laminating adhesive. Though I could use regular wood glue, available locally, to laminate the two pieces of plywood together to get the 1” thickness I was looking for, nobody carried veneer adhesive. I’d have to get it from the States. I learned there are two or three ways to go about applying veneer. Most required special equipment to insure that the veneer is held in place across its entire surface while it cures. Equipment that I didn’t have or thought I could improvise. But one method seemed to fit the bill. The adhesive is “heat activated”. You apply a coat of adhesive to the surface of the piece you’re going to be veneering and a coat to the back side of the veneer itself. Much like using contact cement. The problem with contact cement is that once it has dried and you touch the two pieces together, they bond instantly and cannot be moved. This works OK if the laminate you’re using is flat and ridged. But veneer is very thin, not necessarily flat or ridged and more typically somewhat wavy to begin with. Not a good candidate for contact cement. The heat activated adhesive on the other hand allows you to place the two pieces together and move them about and smooth them out before applying heat to the veneer which then activates the bond between the two pieces. Essentially, you iron, using an ordinary clothes iron set to the cotton heat range, the veneer into place. This method has the additional benefit of being easier to do curved surfaces which I was going to have to do. I ordered that adhesive from the manufacturer located in Maryland and waited for it to arrive. Once it arrived I got the piece of veneer from Jay and cut out a strip about 1-1/2” wide by 7” long that I would first attach to the edge of the counter top. I also cut out the larger, top piece and some smaller pieces that I would use to “experiment” on before tackling the finished top. Staining the counter top to the desired color would be Bryan’s job and this test piece would also serve to allow Bryan to test the “staining process” as well. The veneer had been rolled into a tube about 6” in diameter and stored that way for several months. So getting it to lay flat was a challenge. After doing some Google research I found that I should make up a solution of water and glycerin and spray it on the veneer to loosen the fibers of the wood. That would help them flatten out and conform to the curves without cracking.
The test piece went quite well with no serious issues but it did give me the opportunity to try out using my router to trim the edges of the veneer and I did learn some things there that I was glad to discover before tackling the finished top. Once the test piece was done and I was about as satisfied as I was going to be that I had learned enough to take on the finished piece, I nervously dove it. I’d already spent far more money on materials for this project than I’d anticipated and didn’t want to have to do it a second time. But taking my time to make sure everything was right paid off and the finished product turned out great. A nice flat, smooth counter top, ready for Bryan to stain and then put in place of the existing under size top. Unfortunately the Ash is so light in color that the pictures are a bit hard to show the detail. But here they are anyway.
I started by first contacting my resident wood working expert, Jay Tremblay, who can do anything first class on a boat. Especially out of wood. “Where in Bocas del Toro can I get specialty woods, like Maple, or Mahogany, or some other hard wood?” I’m sure after picking himself up off the floor, he replied. “Not going to happen’” “You’d probably have to go to Panama City or order something from the States.” “But”, he continued, “I have a large piece of Ash veneer in my shop that was bought and paid for by someone and never used that you’re welcome to use.” Well I’d never done anything like that before so I thought it would be fun to give it a go.
I next purchased a sheet of ½” marine plywood to insure minimal warpage. From that sheet of plywood I cut two pieces a little larger than I needed for the counter top which needed to be 38” long by 18” deep by 1” thick. Not having clamps of sufficient size to clamp the two pieces of plywood together while the glue dried, I used several short wood screws to do the job. I later removed the screws and filled the holes they left and sanded everything smooth. This would provide a good bonding surface for the veneer later. I next cut the counter top to its final dimension and using my belt sander bolted sideways to my workbench I made sure the edge was exactly 90 degrees to the top surface. I also used this to form the curved corners of the top. The forward corners of the counter I was making had about a 2” radius curve. You wouldn’t want a square, sharp corner that you could potentially bump into while walking by.
While I was doing this, I was also researching veneer gluing techniques and trying to locate a local source for the proper laminating adhesive. Though I could use regular wood glue, available locally, to laminate the two pieces of plywood together to get the 1” thickness I was looking for, nobody carried veneer adhesive. I’d have to get it from the States. I learned there are two or three ways to go about applying veneer. Most required special equipment to insure that the veneer is held in place across its entire surface while it cures. Equipment that I didn’t have or thought I could improvise. But one method seemed to fit the bill. The adhesive is “heat activated”. You apply a coat of adhesive to the surface of the piece you’re going to be veneering and a coat to the back side of the veneer itself. Much like using contact cement. The problem with contact cement is that once it has dried and you touch the two pieces together, they bond instantly and cannot be moved. This works OK if the laminate you’re using is flat and ridged. But veneer is very thin, not necessarily flat or ridged and more typically somewhat wavy to begin with. Not a good candidate for contact cement. The heat activated adhesive on the other hand allows you to place the two pieces together and move them about and smooth them out before applying heat to the veneer which then activates the bond between the two pieces. Essentially, you iron, using an ordinary clothes iron set to the cotton heat range, the veneer into place. This method has the additional benefit of being easier to do curved surfaces which I was going to have to do. I ordered that adhesive from the manufacturer located in Maryland and waited for it to arrive. Once it arrived I got the piece of veneer from Jay and cut out a strip about 1-1/2” wide by 7” long that I would first attach to the edge of the counter top. I also cut out the larger, top piece and some smaller pieces that I would use to “experiment” on before tackling the finished top. Staining the counter top to the desired color would be Bryan’s job and this test piece would also serve to allow Bryan to test the “staining process” as well. The veneer had been rolled into a tube about 6” in diameter and stored that way for several months. So getting it to lay flat was a challenge. After doing some Google research I found that I should make up a solution of water and glycerin and spray it on the veneer to loosen the fibers of the wood. That would help them flatten out and conform to the curves without cracking.
The test piece went quite well with no serious issues but it did give me the opportunity to try out using my router to trim the edges of the veneer and I did learn some things there that I was glad to discover before tackling the finished top. Once the test piece was done and I was about as satisfied as I was going to be that I had learned enough to take on the finished piece, I nervously dove it. I’d already spent far more money on materials for this project than I’d anticipated and didn’t want to have to do it a second time. But taking my time to make sure everything was right paid off and the finished product turned out great. A nice flat, smooth counter top, ready for Bryan to stain and then put in place of the existing under size top. Unfortunately the Ash is so light in color that the pictures are a bit hard to show the detail. But here they are anyway.
Another project completed and a new skill learned. There will be more.