One day I'll own one...

[Zaphod B]

I've seen some videos of veneer being cut on those big rotary cutters. Very impressive. Looks like wax paper being rolled off a core.

 

[muttley600]

Thats the ones. The plant I visited in Asia some years ago took the feed from several rotary cutters and spat it into a guillotine and glue spreader and into a rolling daylight press. This thing produced an 8 x 4 board every 5-10 secounds and ran 24/7. They had more than one machine as well. It took longer depending on the number of layups that dictated the finished panel thickness. From there they were fed into a tenoning machine that topped, tailed and square edged. Amazing piece of machinery.

 

[Zaphod B]

That sounds very impressive.

 

[gvarko]

Gvarko is that you? The ebay trader that makes and supplies WoodGaurden PickGaurds? If you check out their stuff you'll see some are laminated and some are solid timber. All the solid timber ones are of a stable timber. I'd still laminate the Sapele ones myself but hey they/he stand by them so thats OK

I am the WoodGuarden man helping you sport solid wood!! I have found Sapele to be very stable. I truly prefer the 3 ply birch as pickguard wood. It is extremely durable, resists warpage and stains up very nice. You can get some with nice grain patterns and really make that jump out with the finish.

The only woods I find very difficult in the 1/8 inch thickness are Padauk and the harder woods like Wenge. Padauk is soft and will snap very easy if not careful. The Wenge is almost like petrified wood, tightening the screws down can be hairy..

 

[muttley600]

I am the WoodGuarden man helping you sport solid wood!! I have found Sapele to be very stable. I truly prefer the 3 ply birch as pickguard wood. It is extremely durable, resists warpage and stains up very nice. You can get some with nice grain patterns and really make that jump out with the finish.

The only woods I find very difficult in the 1/8 inch thickness are Padauk and the harder woods like Wenge. Padauk is soft and will snap very easy if not careful. The Wenge is almost like petrified wood, tightening the screws down can be hairy..

Padauk and Wenge are both very open grained timbers that suffer end checking hence the easy cleaving property. What about those splinters that wenge can deliver? Definitely the worst...My concern with solid timber !/8" thick is for timbers with a high figure. There is a lot of pull in those timbers and I like to counteract it. Sapele would likely be fine but as soon as it has some figure it can pull very strongly. Most mahoganies pull like mad when they have interlocking or wavy grain. Sapele, although not a true mahogany demonstrates almost identical properties in most areas.

Are you saying you use 3- ply birch as a pickgaurd material without a face and backing veneer?

Nice looking pickgaurds by the way. Do you cut them on a pin router or in multiples off a jig and flush cut bit?