I work for a refinisher. I had to remove veneer that cracked and split off of a cedar chest that was damaged by water. I had to reveneer the 3-1/2" high base with a top and bottom radius with about a 1" radius on the top and bottom.
I wanted to use NBL, but i felt it was too tight of a radius to wrap a thicker veneer around such a tight radius. The base is 47-1/2" wide by about 3-1/2" high and the graining had to be vertical, which meant the wrapping of the veneer was going perpendicular to the radius.
We don't have a vac press, so the only solution I could think of was to (don't chastize me) use contact cement that comes in a propane tank a d then after the initial wrapping of the veneer, i put yellow glue across the entire length of the base with blocking on each side and clamped it with woodscrew clamps. (Which i will let dry over night)
When i clamped it, the veneer cracked on me in a few small areas. I'm not worried about that because we are really good at hiding damaged areas.
My question is... Without spending a bunch of time making a jig and since we don't have a vac press, how could I have done this differently and how could I have avoided the veneer splitting out on me since i was wrapping it essentially cross-grain to the radius?
I'm only looking for help, not to get a lecture on how bad veneering with contact cement is.
Thx!