Which veneer glue for marine use

[Ryan]

When adding a decorative veneer to a plywood panel on a boat, what type of glue do you use? Epoxy would be my natural choise, but it seems that it would be hard to get thin veneer to lay down smoothly with epoxy, since a roller or scraper would force most of the epoxy out of the joint. I have used Titan DX a lot in the past, but it seems a water based contact cement isn't the best idea on a boat. Thanks in advance.

[Quetzalsailor]

I have reveneered a Flying Dutchman (all 20 x 6 feet of it) ( http://s278.photobucket.com/albums/kk90 ... 0Dutchman/ ). I have also done minor reveneering of a boat countertop. Both in epoxy and using West's reddish microballoons for the filler (the red doesn't look so bad with the mahogany). The game is the clamping while waiting for the epoxy to cure.

Simple small shapes, I just ballast or clamp between flat surfaces. Anything is fair game but the limitations of clamping are depth and backer blocking and for ballast are horizontal, flat surfaces, backer, and weight available. For the FD hull, I used 1000s of staples through sacrificial strips of veneer, taking care to have the rectangular section of the staple's legs aligned with the grain. Filler of epoxy with Mahogany dust made the 1000s X 2 of staple holes disappear.

Contact cement will work well. It's not water soluble (or at least it wasn't). I have had some of my old veneer work shrink and check; the contact cement is not really hard.

[Hirilondë]

For cosmetic veneer, where getting wet will be minimal I use contact cement. It is a lot easier than epoxy as no clamping is needed. It is water proof, although it won't stand up over the long haul if constant soaking or submersion occurs. I know nothing about Titan DX, but just because a product is water based doesn't necessarily mean it isn't waterproof when cured.

[falcon]

I used Tightbond II a waterproof white glue applied to both surfaces. Once the glue was dry the pieces were bonded together with a hot iron which re-activated the glue. This made alighnment very easy and I was very pleased with the product. I then coated the edges with epoxy and laid on several coats of epifanis varnish on the face then screwed the venered pannels to the fiberglass cabin sides. This is a standard method in cabinate making.