Teak veneer - how to cut?

[CFarr]

I need to restore the teak facing to the cave lockers in the forecabin on my Sigma.
They have quite a lot of water damage under the varnish and I'm worried about sanding through the original veneer (I assume it is veneer?)
I expect this damage is from years of wet sail changes (and storage) through the forehatch.

I've read up on how to fix the veneer to the original surface but my question is;
How do I cut the holes to match the cave locker openings?
Do I apply in one piece and then punch through and cut with a sharp craft knife (the veneer I've seen is only 0.6mm) or is the veneer too hard to do this?

I'll try and post a link to a pic of the lockers (not mine).

thanks for looking.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I have been doing something very similar. First try Nitromors. I have had great success in removing water danged, old varnish from around my galley area. This brought the original smooth finish back with only a very light sanding required. In my case though the damp stains did not require much work to remove. I also left some in. For areas where I had damage I made templates as follows: -

1. Obtain some low cost 3mm ply. This can be cut with sharp scissors.
2. Buy a glue gun if you don't have one. The high temperature adhesive sticks are best.
3. Rip the ply into strips about 3" wide.
4. Stick strips of ply onto the face of the locker against the perimeter.
5. Overlap the ply strips by about 5" and stick together to make a lap joint where a strip is too short.
6. Repeat for the holes
7. Using short lengths of ply make sure that the template sections are all joined together. Write any notes on the template e.g. This side out, port side, mark here at this point.
8. Carefully pop the template off the lining.
9. Lay the template the correct way onto your veneer and cut out with a sharp Stanley knife.

Hope this helps.

BlowingOldBoots

 

[lustyd]

I know it doesn't answer the question but thought I should add anyway...have you considered just painting those surfaces? Interior design has come a long way since wood was in fashion and there is no rule that says boats should be immune to this.

 

[PaulMcC]

I did something similar recently covering the main bulkhead in my UFO34 with teak veneer. Having had a long conversation with Robbins Timber I ended up buy teak faced ply. What you get is about 1.5mm thick and is very flexible unlike the straight teak veneer which is brittle (or so I was told). This option is more e3epensive but had two advantages for me, less risk of an expensive snapping incident and that I could fit much bigger sections through the hatch by rolling it up so have fewer pieces and joins.

Robbins packaged it for transport by sandwiching the veneer sheet between cardboard and a sheet of 4mm ply so effectively I got a free sheet of thin ply as well.

To cut to size, I made a cardboard template and used this to rough cut the veneer sheet with a conbination of sissors and tin-snips. (Careful using tin-snips as the pair I have had a tendancy to make the venner want to crack.) With it roughly cut to size I went through a iterative process of offering the veneer up to the bulkhead and trimming back where it was oversized with sissors and finally sanding the last mm or so off.

I ended up gluing the veneer up with D4 PVA glue.

Worked well but was time consuming and while I would definitely buy the flexible veneer again I would do some things slightly differently next time. Primarily I would use something stiffer and more robust as a template. This would have meant I was more confident in the shape, could have cut closer to the template initially and that would have speeded up the process a lot. Also I wouldn't use PVA glue but get something with better 'grab'. (When dealing with a 6 foot by 5 foot weird shape it's difficult to press and hold the whole area at once while the glue sets!)

Good luck!

 

[pmagowan]

I did it similarly with veneer, cutting out a newspaper template and then trimming to size. I think the correct way to do it is to use glue it on oversize and then use a router to trim it back. There is a proper edge trimmer tool but a router does the job as long as you have a flush trimming bit and use the existing holes to support the guide wheel. Using snips or scissors will increase the risk of cracking the veneer so if you are doing it by hand it is probably better to use a sharp blade on a sacrificial surface. You should use a guide to avoid running off your mark or simply score very lightly and gradually build up cutting pressure once you have a groove for the blade to run in. Any wee nics tend to disappear when you glue it down anyway.

 

[PCUK]

Once the veneer is roughly trimmed use a fine file in a downwards direction to finish the edges.

 

[yoda]

While not answering the question, I had a lot of success with water damaged ply by carefully scraping off the varnish (quite easy when water has got behind it) and then using bleach to remove any black stains. Neutralised with vinegar and water, cleaned with white spirit and if necessary a very light sanding before re-varnishing. No real cost involved and worth a go before going to a lot of trouble.

Yoda

 

[Blueboatman]

One or two passes with a (sharp) cabinet scraper may well 'do it' for removing the flakey varnish and scraping off just enough old veneer to get a reasonable colour restoration..Wipe the whol area with white spirit to 'see' whether you have removed enough material for good colour match or whether you need to either scrape a tad more or apply bleach, judiciously..

I ( I) would go this route b4 reveneering, sort of supports what Yoda has already said too

 

[Redshank Evo26]

One or two passes with a (sharp) cabinet scraper may well 'do it' for removing the flakey varnish and scraping off just enough old veneer to get a reasonable colour restoration..Wipe the whol area with white spirit to 'see' whether you have removed enough material for good colour match or whether you need to either scrape a tad more or apply bleach, judiciously..

I ( I) would go this route b4 reveneering, sort of supports what Yoda has already said too

To slightly modify Blueboatman's system. I use Oxalic acid (starbright fiberglass hull cleaner for instance) it works a treat at restoring the colour of water damaged wood. Refinish with teak oil or satin varnish. Oxalic acid can be bought in crystal form off ebay far cheaper than bottles of hull cleaner though, depends how much you need to treat.

I think Sigmas were built by Princess yachts (marine projects)? My parents used to own a Princess 30ds with fore cabin wood work just like that shown in the picture, it was a very original lightly used boat when they bought her, the interior wood work on that was oiled, not varnished.

 

[mick butterworth]

i am in the prosess of stripping out the galley in my jaguar 25, most of the teak faced ply is disscoloured with black mould i have soaked it in octalic acid (weak mix)and left it for 24 hours and then rubbed down with scouring pad ,all water stains and marks are gone. the other problem is with the teak face delaminating ive tried to glue it back on with gorilla glue and seems to be working. all the teak will be oiled rather than varnished as for cutting the laminate i use a sharp scalpel or a hacksaw.......mick

 

[johnphilip]

I would go along with the suggestion of thin teak faced ply rather than veneer, much easier to handle. Another very useful product is the real wood veneer iron on edgings such as http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/1313...1=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108&ff19=0
These are available in various widths and great for the edges of your cave lockers, masking the ply edge at the locker opening.

 

[ip485]

I wonder if the facia boards can be removed without too many complications?

Re-facing in situ I suspect will be pretty skilled if you want to acheive a very good finish, but a great deal easier woring horizontally in a warm enviroment.

and you may find it is a lot easier cuttting some new facia boards from teak faced ply once they are removed using the original as templates.

 

[Hadenough]

One or two passes with a (sharp) cabinet scraper may well 'do it' for removing the flakey varnish and scraping off just enough old veneer to get a reasonable colour restoration..Wipe the whol area with white spirit to 'see' whether you have removed enough material for good colour match or whether you need to either scrape a tad more or apply bleach, judiciously..

I ( I) would go this route b4 reveneering, sort of supports what Yoda has already said too

Just done mine like that, was amazed at how easy the old varnish came off, just like shaving.

 

[CFarr]

I'm the OP.
This thread was from last April and the job has now been done.
I decided to try the paint stripper/scrape/re-varnish route which was relatively successful.
I'm leaving it as it is for now to see how we live with it this year.
I agree with the fact that it would be very difficult to re veneer the panels in-situ so I'm thinking if we don't like it then it might end up being painted.
Thanks for all the advice chaps.
Chris