What Wood Is common?

[Bent]

I was thinking ...how about a 1/8" maple veneer and laminate 6 layers together with contact cement for a 3/4" thick ?...it would be alot cheaper to buy a 4'x8' sheet and you could probabably make a few out of a sheet!
any thought on that?

I have read that glue does something to dampen the sound. With 6 layers of 1/8" there would be 5 layers of glue. Even worse with plywood where the layers are a lot thinner and thereby more glue. I am no expert but in my builds I like to get away from using plastic. I imagine when glue dries it is about the consistency of nylon(plastic).

[Allan]

I was thinking ...how about a 1/8" maple veneer and laminate 6 layers together with contact cement for a 3/4" thick ?...it would be alot cheaper to buy a 4'x8' sheet and you could probabably make a few out of a sheet!
any thought on that?

I have read that glue does something to dampen the sound. With 6 layers of 1/8" there would be 5 layers of glue. Even worse with plywood where the layers are a lot thinner and thereby more glue. I am no expert but in my builds I like to get away from using plastic. I imagine when glue dries it is about the consistency of nylon(plastic).

That's right Bent - and to take it a little further, contact cement never actually hardens - it remains soft enough to absorb some of the vibrations that we want in the build. It is possible to build your own ply but the pressure needed to get a good, even bond is in the range of tons over any significant area. Some wood workers who specialize in veneering use an airbag system to apply the pressure but the equipment is expensive once you look at any area over a few square inches. This equipment is available as a pressure system and also as a vacuum system.
I don't know for sure but I don't feel quite at ease with the concept of 'normal' ply wood for instruments. The idea of each ply being at right angles to the one next to it seems like a vibration killer to me. I have NO basis for that statement - just a feeling. However, with that said, the classic White Falcon is/was built using maple ply for the front and back. I will add however, that is one HEAVY guitar.

[Pat Comeau]

what about just carpenter glue? .

[Allan]

what about just carpenter glue? .

That would be way better but would still need huge pressure to bond properly. Just for the sake of numbers consider this:
A piece 10" by 30" would give 300 square inches. At, say, 10 pounds per square inch of pressure you would need to apply a total of 3000 pounds of pressure while the glue dried. Also, I think you would need to do each lamination separately.
With the time, the materials and the equipment it might be a way to go, practically, probably not.

I just had a look around (Google) and found that the above figure of 10 PSI is way wrong for normal ply production - it is more like 110 to 200 PSI that is used in commercial plants.

With all of that said, for decorative pieces, or, for small structural pieces normal gluing does work. Just consider the area of the simple, face to face glued joint before committing to a situation where there is no mechanical component to the interface.

[richard37066]

Allan -

Your post is quite informative and on the money.

I would take exception to it ONLY with regards my intent to laminate a thin covering of some exotic material to die board. The intense pressures required to manufacture die board are left to the manufacturer. The very thin laminations approach being a homogeneous material. This only says that the cabinets from one instrument to another will be quite similar and not subject to the vagaries of sawn lumber.

My rather thick "veneer" constitutes only window dressing to an already stable and dense material. I intend using a space-age epoxy for the "glue". I don't feel it necessary to apply the same outrageous pressures since the surface material contributes little to the overall strength of the lamination and, acoustically, is minimal.

Once again, my emphasis on die board is only because the degree of necessary precision in the manufacture of the material is in other's hands - leaving us to concentrate on the rather mundane aspects of our construction.

Is my method necessarily "better" than others? Ain't nobody done the research - yet. We do our own thing and keep our fingers crossed. If it works, we're in hog heaven. If it doesn't then we've at least learned something in the process.

'Tis sometimes said that the end result is not necessarily the biggest rush but, rather, the chase in getting there. We're all having one helluva great time chasing a bunch of intangibles.

Carry on!

Richard

[Allan]

No 'exception' to take Richard - I think your application is covered in my last paragraph.

As you say, it is all in the chase - the journey is often way better than the arrival - Oh Yeah!

Regards, Allan.....