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laminating exotic wood

Richard Avram

Richard Avram

Joined
Oct 14, 2012
Messages
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Location
Michigan
I have a project that I have been wanting to try and I want to use something like ebony or African blackwood. The problem is finding something large enough and I was wondering about laminating to get the desired size. I know that exotic woods can be oily and tricky to laminate so I wonder if anybody can give me some advise on how to make sure that it lasts without ever separating.
 
Use epoxy and get as much side grain to side grain yardage as you can. I haven't glued a lot of the stuff, usually using it as decorative fillers. I have only had one failure that I know of and because of the gain orientation I suspected it might fail and kept that piece. It was wood movement that caused it. I should have designed it differently. So I would say it sort of depends on how you are laminating. When I've done bowl from a board projects with exotics I haven't had any problems. Those are almost entirely side grain to side grain projects with all the wood moving the same direction so they are probably the least likely to fail from the beginning. Hopefully others who do other types of glue ups will chime in.
 
In gluing exotics you will get better adhesion if you either glue immediately after cutting or wipe down with mineral spirits (and let that dry) just prior to gluing. Titebond glues should work unless you are doing thin laminates and in that case TB will allow the joint to "creep" or slip. If you are just gluing to get a larger piece TB will work. Also remember engrain glueups are not very strong.
 
Are you wanting to use very thin pieces so that you can bend them or are you talking of thicker pieces? With thicker pieces you would need to run them through a jointer to get the faces flat. If the pieces are small a stationary belt sander might be able to do it although it is easy to tip the piece when pulling it away from the sander.
 
Bill Boehme said:
Are you wanting to use very thin pieces so that you can bend them or are you talking of thicker pieces? With thicker pieces you would need to run them through a jointer to get the faces flat. If the pieces are small a stationary belt sander might be able to do it although it is easy to tip the piece when pulling it away from the sander.
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I'm talking about using 3/4 boards to build up a larger piece. I have also heard that it helps to rough up the board with coarse sandpaper before gluing, any truth to that?
 
Richard Avram said:
I'm talking about using 3/4 boards to build up a larger piece. I have also heard that it helps to rough up the board with coarse sandpaper before gluing, any truth to that?
Click to expand...
For clean wood joint it is not necessary to rough the surface . That would be needed for surfaces painted using specialty glues only.
 
Richard Avram said:
I'm talking about using 3/4 boards to build up a larger piece. I have also heard that it helps to rough up the board with coarse sandpaper before gluing, any truth to that?
Click to expand...

In woodturning, you would want your glue joints to be invisible. Any wood that you buy that has been dimensioned to 3/4" thickness hasn't been flattened on a jointer so it would be best if you could do that for the tightest glue joint. Sanding with coarse sandpaper is not the way to prepare a glue joint. Doing so would just make the joint more visible and make the joint weaker.
 
I can't speak to gluing for turning, but I've glued gobs of teak and some other oily exotics as a boat carpenter. I've always used Acetone, as it's the standard. I've seen teak come apart quickly from no acetone, and I've seen plenty of teak that's held together outside in the elements for many years that used acetone.

Use good ventilation, a respirator, and gloves for acetone. And for what it's worth nitrile gloves get eaten up very fast by acetone, so latex or heavy vinyl is best.

+1 On what Bill said. The cleaner the joining, the better the glue adhesion.
 
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Ok, thanks everyone for all of the input, I think I have got it. Plane the board but do not rough it up and use acetone to clean the oily surface before gluing.
 
Richard Avram said:
Ok, thanks everyone for all of the input, I think I have got it. Plane the board but do not rough it up and use acetone to clean the oily surface before gluing.
Click to expand...

When it comes to handling acetone, none of the chemical gloves are perfect. Nitrile is rated FAIR and if you use it then use the thick 9 mil gloves. Latex is rated GOOD if you use 8 mil thickness. Butyl rubber is rated the best for acetone.
 
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