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Here’s one for the stair crowd. After building/installing and trimming out a 15 rise curve{oak theads,paint grade stringer and risers} and AFTER the house is painted, tiled etc… The client decides that they want OAK stringers and risers. After being given the quote{not cheap} and not batting an eye they agree.
Now this stair has dbl b/n,2 st treads,9 pie treads,2 st treads at top.
This requires 2 “easings-1 down/1 up” After laying out and double/triple checking it I cut out the veneer with a razor knife{very fresh/new blades}
and decided not to use “contact cement” for obvious reasons. I decided to use yellow {alphetic resin} after reading in FINE wood working that once applied to both surfaces and left to dry it can be activated with a clothes
iron, similar to edge banding but on a larger scale.
As I was the only person doing this I removed the tread returns and cove moulding. I then sanded the stringers,risers and rolled on 2 coats of the glue allowing each to dry before appling the next. I was then able to use push pins in areas that would be later hidden to align the veneer on the stringers. Then it was just a matter of setting the iron on cotton and iron away. The iron presses as it heats but I had a roller in hand also.
Forgive the length but this is a first for me.
Just had to share GEO
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George, good to know that method works. I hate using contact cement with wood veneer. Were there any curved parts that the iron couldn't contact fully? Any shrinkage or problems with alignment? Any burning of the wood?
*Mike, The inside stringer was a tad tight with the iron but my trusty heat gun and roller took care of that.I aligned it as true as possible with push pins. It must have looked wierd 1 person handeling a limp noodle but I'm stubborn.I aligned the joint at the shortest poss location- square off the treads at the rise/run intersection which gave me a seam of+/-4". This was the area I worked out from.I did the stringers first and that allowed some "fudge". After that I was able to knife the rise flush and then apply the veneer to the risers once again knifeing them with a piece of veneer under the knife after which I used a sanding block to flush the seam at the riser. There is no visible shrinkage as yet and I suggested to the finisher to at least apply some sanding sealer and keep the climate controled. I believe that once the coats of glue have air dried and then are re heated the heat from the iron should dissapate any remaing moisture.
*George: That sounds interesting. Do you have any pictures you could post? Was the bottom of the mitered stringer square? I had a curved stairs once that the owners wanted to change to all oak after it was built. I was going to veneer it, but they decided to keep it as it was.
*Stan, I'm a little fuzzy from the bug thats going around here. "bottom of mitered stringer square?" In relation to: the floor cut?, 3/4 thickness of the outside face stringer to the sheetrock? The grain runs square to the rake{paralell to the bottom of stringer} Hope this helps. I've got one of those 1 time use cameras that I keep with me but some times the pictures come out crappy, probably due to the fact that it's left in the truck till it's out of shots. I'm going to try to get this roll done on a disc if they will process it that way so I can post. Thanks for the reply GEO
*George: I meant to say was the bottom edge of the stringer profiled? If it was just a square edge, this would be easier to laminate, but if it had a roman ogee profile or something like that, then it would get complicated.
*Stan, We use either a rabbeted flex base cap or plain flex base cap for the stringer and radius balcony trim.It comes plain{paint grade}or grained{stain grade}. GEO