: I agree with Shawn, try 1/16" veneer, available from Constantine's or
: Certainly Wood online. I used strips of 1/16" ash and did not have to
: steam it.

: Jim

Most veneers sold are 1/32" thick or less and are meant for application
on furniture. For coaming purposes this is too thin, making handling and
gluing excessive, so it is important to let the veneer seller know you what
1/16" thickness’.

Veneers are shipped rolled. Be sure to unroll the veneer you buy and lay
them flat. Weight them down if needed, to flatten. Veneer dealers store veneers
flat, so unroll the veneer as soon as you receive them. Flat veneers are much
easier to cut and stack while gluing.

You can cut veneer by hand, but this is slow and often irregular. I tack
one edge of two veneers together with small dabs of hot glue and run then
through a tablesaw to cut them. Drop your saw blade and lay the veneers
against the fence. Make a hold down device by taking a 12" piece of 2 X 4
and make two cuts 1/2" and 1" from one edge, with each cut coming in from
opposite ends but stopping 2" from cutting through. This will make a spring
board hold down device. Use spring clamps to press the hold down on the
veneers to prevent kickback from the saw blade. Remove the veneers, raise
the saw blade into the hold down (with the saw on) and cut your veneers.

1/16' veneers typically come in 12" widths. I cut the veneer into 2" widths
for my cockpit coaming. The shape of the cockpit cut-out is a three dimensional
line. I find the 2" height of the veneer lamination allows me to scribe it to
follow this shape keeping the coaming on a vertical plane. My cockpit coaming
is 3/4” high after trimming the lamination to follow the cockpit line of the deck.
The thickness of this raised edge lamination for the coaming is 1/4”. To make the
“lip” of the coaming I glue up a 5/8” wide by 2’ high lamination. I cut a
1/4” slice off the 5/8” edge for each side of the coaming lip to be glued to the
coaming rise.

The 1/4’ and 5/8” laminations are clamped together on a cockpit bending form
to insure corresponding fit. The 1/4” and 5/8” laminations are placed in wax paper
sleeves to keep them from sticking to each other or the bending form. The whole
coaming is started by gluing two 1/4” by 5/8” slices under the cockpit cut-out of
the deck. Then the coaming rise is clamped, scribed and glued to this and finally
two more 1/4” by 5/8” slices are glued to the coaming rise, forming the coaming lip.

All the best,

Rob Macks
Laughing Loon CC&K
www.LaughingLoon.com