Date: 3 November 2018. Repairing Veneer.

© janice142

Nothing good happens when I am tired, especially late at night. Just this past week I was not careful when opening a locker under my silverware drawer. The door is plywood with a teak veneer. I managed to snag a piece of the veneer which came off. Ugh. It looked ugly. Here's how I solved the issue for free, with stuff I had aboard Seaweed.

Under the silverware drawer is a locker I use for my canning jars:

My filled jars of food wax and wane, depending upon how ambitious I am to restock the locker.
 

I have written a few articles on canning meats. If you are a novice, start here:
Canning Primer (Preserving Meats, Part 1)

Aboard Seaweed for years I did not have a working refrigerator. Actually I had one, but not the power to run it.
Thus I lived without a way to keep meats cool. Last year I joined the new millennium thanks to Larry and Eva:
I now have a working reefer. Life is indeed very good.
 

I love my Haier refrigerator. The Powering the Refrigerator
series details how to have refrigeration while living life off the grid.

Haier 3.1 cubic foot ↑ refrigerator.
 

The desire to have healthy meats not laden with salt and multi-syllable ingredients was a driving force in my canning. Without the power to run a reefer, I needed options. Canning my own provided the best one for me. Store-bought canned meats either came in too large a container or were way too salty.
 

I knew I could do better by processing my own meat. I still preserve meats today. Now my canning is for fun. In addition to main course fodder, I also make my own jams and jellies. That is because I prefer less sugar than those sold in grocery stores.
 

But I digress...
The canned goods locker has a plywood door. That door has a thin layer of veneer. When I opened the door late at night, I cracked off a piece of the veneer.
 

The first thing I did after breaking off part of the veneer was get out my Elmer's Glue (2 pack). DO NOT use
any other brand. There is a difference, so splurge and spend for the name brand for this particular item.

The Elmer's Glue (affiliate link) has a cap from a battery terminal atop the orange part that opens. That is because
the glue sits in a sunny window. Eventually the sun will crack the orange part, so I keep it covered.
 

You also might notice that grey/black gizmo Velcro'ed to the rail. The Velcro is from a bunch of broccoli incidentally. The grey/black thing was a gel wrist guard for a computer mouse. When someone was going to throw it away I asked for it. I thought I could use it to cushion that piece of rail.
 

Occasionally I would lean back too rapidly and conk my head on the wood. The wrist guard is just the correct width. It serves a purpose. I don't believe guests even realize it is there. If they leaned back they will find the cush far more comfortable than a wooden fiddle rail. I do anyway!
 

I took out my Elmer's glue. I ran a strip of glue down the piece that I had broken off. Another line of glue was
added to the notch where the wood needed to be reinserted. Then I attached the strip to the door. It fell off. Twice.

Finally I got out my vise grips and secured the piece in place at the bottom.

What I should have done: Buy special wood glue. Then locate my C-Clamps at bottom of a locker in the galley, and remove same. Carefully apply specialty wood glue to both the locker door and the separated strip of veneer. Next sandwich the repaired area are between two stiff pieces of plastic. Secure it all together with C-clamps. Wait six hours for the glue to dry. Remove accoutrements, and finally put everything away.

What I did: I got the job done in just a few minutes using the standard Elmer's glue and vise grips. Is it perfect? No. It is Good Enough.
 

When I first owned Seaweed I wanted everything ship shape. Daddy's boat was dang near perfect and I desired the same. Finally I realized that I was becoming paralyzed by perfection. Now I am striving for Good Enough. Seaweed is not quite perfect however she is getting better all the time.

The veneer repair is nearly invisible. The piece ↓ BROKE AT THE RED ARROW
and is now fixed. It was approximately 1/2" wide and about six inches long.

With a coat of varnish the whole repair should disappear into the background.
 

All this was done because I had onboard a bottle of Elmer's School Glue.

 

If you ever wonder what I do in the middle of the night, besides writing and reading that is, well, now you know. I fix stuff.

Thanks for reading.
 

Do you have Elmer's glue in your home?
Do you use Elmer's for stuff other than paper crafts? What do you use it for?

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