I am going to build a chair with a curved shape in oak.
Can I take oak veneer and laminate it - or does it have to be made of plywood (aircraft plywood due to the thinness/flexibility)? Ideally, it should be oak as the rest of the chair is oak, so I would prefer not to use aircraft plywood.
But will it be as strong with, say, 5-6 layers of 1.5mm oak veneer?
The alternative might have been a couple of layers of aircraft ply in the middle and veneer on the outside?
Can I take oak veneer and laminate it - or does it have to be made of plywood (aircraft plywood due to the thinness/flexibility)? Ideally, it should be oak as the rest of the chair is oak, so I would prefer not to use aircraft plywood.
But will it be as strong with, say, 5-6 layers of 1.5mm oak veneer?
The alternative might have been a couple of layers of aircraft ply in the middle and veneer on the outside?
Take veneer, but alternate the grain direction on some of the inner layers to gain strength in all directions. It will be easier to work with just veneer. Plywood is stiffer. 6 layers of 1.5 mm build up to about 9 mm - it will be very strong!
I have personally built a boat just over 4 m using a similar method. I constructed the hull from 3 layers of 1/8 inch veneer, which amounted to about 3/8 inch thick, i.e., 9 mm.
I have personally built a boat just over 4 m using a similar method. I constructed the hull from 3 layers of 1/8 inch veneer, which amounted to about 3/8 inch thick, i.e., 9 mm.
What shape are you trying to achieve? Changing the fiber direction might not be the best option, as it would have, for example, weakened the chairs I've made. I have a curved shape on the backrest of my chairs, five layers with 2.5 mm veneer, birch and oak alternating in each layer.