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.....