GeeDubb wrote:
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?

Gary
I was therefore I'm not.....

Gary:

First, I'm glad you made your post, I'm a couple of weeks from doing the
same game board and had just assumed that David Marks was being anal.
Now I assume he learned this the hard way.

On the show for the chessboard, he uses the same veneer on both sides of
each strip. In other situations, he's used other woods for the backing
veneer (e.g. cherry backing with madrone burl front). My guess is
"similar density" is adequate.

~Mark.