Where to get good veneers?

[slowlearner]

High all, sorry if this is a dumb question. Living in western Sydney. Is there a good (and cheapish) place to get veneers near me?

[rocket]

Hi Pete, I'm in Melbourne so not sure about suppliers in NSW but there should be a Carbatech around there somewhere, they usually stock a bit of veneer.
Cheers

Rod.

[slowlearner]

out of interest. if I wanted to make thin veneers, how would I do it?

[Allen]

How thin? And how big?

It's quite possible to make veneers the size of a guitar top using a band saw and then a thickness sander. Maybe larger but I haven't tried that. Taken down to 0.8mm isn't a worry.

[simonm]

Don't know about Oz but here in Germany eBay is definitely worth a shot. A vast range of veneers turns up from regular sellers to people closing down old workshops.

[Mark McLean]

Constantines is an online supplier in the US.
http://www.constantines.com/
They have a big variety of veneers, including lots of nice figured burl and crotch timbers. They are about a foot square, so fine for things like rosettes and headstock veneers, but not big enough for a whole guitar drop-top. I bought one of the burl/crotch assortments and it has enough to supply me for years. Shipping was pretty reasonable - it is a very light package.

Mark

[slowlearner]

I'm looking for the sort of stuff I could use for fret markers on a fretless bass.

[EricDownunder]

If your interested, I am in western Sydney I have allready orgabised with a Sydney veneer company to collect a variety of offcuts for me in assorted colours and timbers I have no idea what I am going to get, when or how much. I will be talking to them today it's been a few weeks now, maybe I could share a little or a lot depending on what I get and how often I can get it. Thickness I'm not sure about .6mm thereabouts.

[Nick]

Constantines is an online supplier in the US.
http://www.constantines.com/
They have a big variety of veneers, including lots of nice figured burl and crotch timbers. They are about a foot square, so fine for things like rosettes and headstock veneers, but not big enough for a whole guitar drop-top. I bought one of the burl/crotch assortments and it has enough to supply me for years. Shipping was pretty reasonable - it is a very light package.

Mark

I bought one of their Burl Packs Mark, great variety of lovely burls which I use to slap on around the edge of my soundholes, the rosette combinations will be endless I suspect, think my mind will run out of ideas before the veneer pack depletes .

[Kim]

Joe at http://www.veneersupplies.com/ looked after those of us who went in on an ANZLF group buy very well. At that time we were setting up our vacuum units but obviously from the name of his business Joe stocks a nice range of veneers also. If anyone is considering buying veneers OS, then I reckon a visit to his site could be really worth while.

Cheers

Kim

[Mike Thomas]

I have bought a fair bit of veneer from http://www.certainlywood.com in the U.S. They have a pretty extensive range, but what has most attracted me to them is that as well as the standard .6mm veneer, they also stock thick veneers. I have bought mahogany, black walnut, poplar and maple around 1.5mm thick, and some species are available up to 4mm thick and over 200mm wide e.g.quarter sawn African Mahogany for $4.50 per sq.ft.

I know that this isn't what you are looking for at the moment Pete, but it's useful topic, and others may be interested.

[charangohabsburg]

I'm looking for the sort of stuff I could use for fret markers on a fretless bass.

That doesn't sound like a lot of material. You could take any piece of wood, cut some sticks and take the down with a handplane and scraper to almost any thickness you wish. This is quicker than you might believe. A veneer thicknesser might help but is not really necessary for just one or two meters of veneer strip.

Veneer-thicknesser-2012_D70_4907-1.jpg (87.02 KiB) Viewed 39927 times

Of course you also can use a drumsander as Allen already mentioned.

[Lee]

A wee grab of tooth-picks out of the jar at the local Chinese takeaways would do the trick.

[kiwigeo]

A wee grab of tooth-picks out of the jar at the local Chinese takeaways would do the trick.

Veneer....toothpicks. I dont get the connection.

[Lee]

I'm looking for the sort of stuff I could use for fret markers on a fretless bass.

Essentially 20 odd 40mm to 70mm lengths of thin wood inlay with a degree of contrast to the fingerboard.

[kiwigeo]

I'm looking for the sort of stuff I could use for fret markers on a fretless bass.

Essentially 20 odd 40mm to 70mm lengths of thin wood inlay with a degree of contrast to the fingerboard.

Well ok if you want to save a few dollars but what about all the join marks?

[Lee]

Keep 'em on the centreline and use 'hide' glue :

[Nick]

A wee grab of tooth-picks out of the jar at the local Chinese takeaways would do the trick.

Are you talking about side dot markers Lee? I think Pete was talking about inlays on the face of the fingerboard so would have to be somewhat bigger than a toothpick in width, but I could be wrong.

[Lee]

I took the job as being the 'visual' frets, one through 19, 20, 21... whatever, inlaid flush, rather than the third, fifth, seventh etc markings. I too can be wrong.

[kiwigeo]

I took the job as being the 'visual' frets, one through 19, 20, 21... whatever, inlaid flush, rather than the third, fifth, seventh etc markings. I too can be wrong.

No youre right..I didnt read the original post correctly.

[Nick]

I took the job as being the 'visual' frets, one through 19, 20, 21... whatever, inlaid flush, rather than the third, fifth, seventh etc markings. I too can be wrong.

Ahhh penny drops, I must learn to read the posts properly! Dohh! No you are dead right Lee, markers to fill the empty fret slots on a fretless board. Apologies Pete

[auscab]

Sounds like you want string inlay . I know a cabinet makers supply in Melbourne that sells Box wood and Ebony from 1.2 mm square up to about 4mm square with about 4 sizes in between . There is also a range of mixed timber strips like Herring bone and all sorts , to many to list. Is that what your after?

[Allen]

On one Weissenborn I built I used b/maple/b purfling for the fret's in an ebony board. All that is left to see is the maple. Worked a treat.

[slowlearner]

I'm looking for the sort of stuff I could use for fret markers on a fretless bass.

That doesn't sound like a lot of material. You could take any piece of wood, cut some sticks and take the down with a handplane and scraper to almost any thickness you wish. This is quicker than you might believe. A veneer thicknesser might help but is not really necessary for just one or two meters of veneer strip.

Veneer-thicknesser-2012_D70_4907-1.jpg

Of course you also can use a drumsander as Allen already mentioned.

Wow thanks guys. Some great ideas.

Charangohabsburg, can you tell me more about the process? How do you keep the little bits of wood still? Double sided tape? I don't have a drum sander.

[slowlearner]

ps. this is the sort of fret markers I'm talking about



fretless board with fret lines. It's going to be fanned fret (multiscale) fretless so it really needs the markers.