Holding wood veneer for cutting on the 'Bot

[rcnewcomb]

What hold down methods are people using to cut veneer on the Shopbot?

[rhfurniture]

If you mean to surface thin stock I use vacuum.
I have a purpose built bolt on table that uses rubber gasket. I use small thicknessed tabs .5mm thinner than the gasket to stop it sagging in the middle.

R.

[gerald_d]

We had a customer who brought us the veneer already glued to formica faced MDF. It looked like he used "contact" glue. He said he "scraped" the veneer off (maybe used solvent to clean up?). Anyway, it cut very nicely with a 3mm down-spiral slightly into the formica.

[stevem]

If you're cutting through the veneer, a pressure foot might be usefull.

[beacon14]

Gerald has the right idea - if you use contact cement but only spray the formica surface (or melamine, or MDF...), it will hold the veneer pretty well temporarily but allow you to remove it carefully after cutting. Because it holds 100% of the surface right up to the cut line it will give you a cleaner cut than almost anything you could do with a vacuum, and there's no gasketing involved. You could probably get two or more pieces cut before having to renew the adhesive.

[stickman]

I worked for a cabinet shop. We used a vertical, thinner grade of laminate to band cabinet box edges. However there were times that we couldn't get vertical so we'd buy a standard grade laminate used in countertop manufacturing. We would then sand this down with a wide belt sander. It wasn't the best solution but one that we used more times that we really would have liked.

My point is, That I would agree with Gerald. We used a spray adhesive "contact adhesive" and then after cutting or sanding we'd use laquer thinner or acetone to remove the laminate or veneer.

Just my Saturday morning thoughts...