T2K Posted July 15, 2003 Share Posted July 15, 2003 I have a small cabinet that is made from plywood and is covered with mahogany veneer. There are several dents/dings/dimples, whatever you want to call them, in the veneer/wood and I want to try and 'raise' them. I'm going to try the damp towel/warm iron method to see in that would help. I'm hoping someone here has tried this successfully and has a few free pointers. Anyone? Thanks. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted July 15, 2003 Share Posted July 15, 2003 That might work if the dents and dings are very minor - otherwise you may be looking at serious sanding and filling and/or reveneering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted July 15, 2003 Share Posted July 15, 2003 Keith, Guess I've lived a sheltered life. didn't know such was possible. Hope you post your results. Thanks. Dee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhawk92 Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 T2K- My woodworking experince is limited to high school shop, but as I was doing project and occasionally they got dinged around, the wet towel and iron trick did pretty good. The water/steam raises the grain of the wood and then you can sand it smooth. It may not work on really deep hits, but for the lighter ones, it did quite well. Side note: after finishing with 120 sandpaper, I always ran a wet towel over the project to raise the grain and then sand that smooth with 220. Then when a stain was applied, it wouldn't raise the grain any more and give you a rough finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 This technique should work well for you, Keith. I don't think I would resort to filling defects not repaired by this method. I could tell you why, but the pointers wouldn't be free... Another idea involves blowing compressed air into the binding posts, increasing the internal pressure of the speaker, and thus "popping" the dents out. I haven't tested this yet. fini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungkiman Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 Use a hot iron, and get the wood wet too. The hot iron will cause the water on/in the wood to turn to steam and expand. Tough thing is, this can also blister or fog the finish. We use the steam technique on raw wood often, but not often on finished wood. Good luck. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 I had some luck years ago on bare wood, and small dings. Not on the big ones though. From what I read, the theory is that you get some water into the crushed wood fiber, then the heat turns it to steam and the crushed area expands. In the examples I've read, a dropper or straw is used to apply the water only to the specific area. The touch the tip of an iron. One reason this doesn't work too well, perhaps, is that crushed fiber doesn't absorb water very well. Maybe a bit of soaking will help. The second issue may be that the existing finish prevents penetration of the water. Maybe it has been gauged out. As pointed out, the steam is bad for the finish in any event. If I was doing this, I'd only do it if you're committed to removing the finish with a little sanding, use a dropper, be happy with the risk of water damage to the rest of the wood, maybe compromise the glue holding on the veneer, and be ready to refinish the area. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted July 17, 2003 Author Share Posted July 17, 2003 Thanks for the tips everyone. I am definitely going to try the water/iron method as this would be a great opportunity to screw something up. As fini said, I'm not crazy about filler because I've never seen a filler that will accept a stain well. There is a however a small piece of veneer missing on the side of the cabinet that I will have to fill, so I'll try that too and hope for the best. If everything, or anything, goes well and I learn something about this steam thing I'll post here. Thanks again for the responses. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerohm Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 It will also open up the grain in most cases... which can be an issue if you try to get an even staining job. Just don't go overboard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 Keith, You may be able to fix the veneer with a "Dutchman," a small piece of veneer you snag from another place, maybe like the inside of the cabinet, if it's vwneered there, or from the inside of a riser, etc. Think of it as a skin graft. I'm serious, I've done this before. You can save the cabinet (and your ***, if it's damage you did on a customer's cabinet...). Another place to get a small amount of veneer, is get some of that iron-on wood edge veneer. Play with it a bit. Dr. fini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted July 19, 2003 Author Share Posted July 19, 2003 OK, I'll come clean. The piece is a Scott wood cabinet. It has a small veneer chip on the side which can be easily filled with wood bondo and then artistically applying stain and a fake grain pattern with dark paint. Works well. The top has a dent about the size of a pencil eraser about 1/8" deep. It also has a deep scratch/groove about 3" long in a wavvy pattern about 1/16" deep. All in all, the cabinet doesn't look too bad right now. I just want to get it looking nice to use with my Scott 233 that I just laid out $80 for. I just played with my dutchman for about 15 minutes fini. It didn't seem to help the cabinet, but I feel a lot better. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herc Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 Keith, just to let you know the wet/steam iron method is for solid wood only. You will only be getting the venner wet and not the substrate, due to what type of glue they used for the venner.If you try ,you risk seperating the venner. The dutchman idea is good, but since its a relatively small cage why not just recover the whole thing in veneer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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