"GeeDubb" wrote in message
...
At the end of last year I made a chess table for my daughter using a
method by David Marks. I varied some things using what I had in stock
such as using 1/2" birch ply (instead of 3/4" apple ply....) as well as
cutting the veneer a full 1/4"+ thick vs. the 3/16" Marks used. Now in
reading the write up of the show on DIY.com I saw nothing relating to
veneering both sides of the ply but in watching the show I notice that
Marks did indeed veneer both sides though he never covered this step.

The table turned out fine as I framed the checkered glue up rather quickly
and experienced no warping. Trying to be thrifty I also constructed two
more chess boards (hoping to sell them at a later time) setting them aside
while I finished the table for my daughter. A couple of months have gone
by and to my surprise, both of these boards warped, one quite badly and
the other enough to notice.

I know there have been discussion about the need or not of balancing
veneers but there never seemed to be a real consensus. I ended up adding
1/4" veneer to the back side of the board. Of course this didn't bring
the boards back into flat but I was able to sand each board flat w/o them
re-warping. It's a good thing I cut these so called veneers so thick
otherwise I would have wasted some perfectly good quilted maple and
walnut.

Now the big question, when balancing veneers on a substrate should the
veneers be similar in density? I ask because I ended up using alder to
balance the maple/walnut. Another question, should both sides be finished
equally? By this I mean oiled/varnished/lacquered with the same number of
application coats?


Not sure why a thin veneer "unbalanced" would be any different than five
plies versus four plies. Thick veneer, I'd balance. A quarter inch isn't
veneer, it's wood. You can glue up thick and reduce quickly after with your
planer to near veneer.

Old boys used to take the lumber core, cross-veneer to hide and joints, then
apply the primary on the good side, two of whatever on the opposite.