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Building a Veneer Bag Storage and Deployment Jig

Building a Veneer Bag Storage and Deployment Jig

For this video I build a Veneer bag and storage system to help manage my veneer bag. Packing that thing is a lot of dead weight and I didn’t want to risk it getting a hole punched in it.

You Can Download a Set of Plans here

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Video Recap

Veneer Bag Deployment System.
Today I’m building a veneer bag deployment and storage jig
I built this project 3 years ago and I decided not to publish this video, but quite a few people have asked question about my veneer system so I decided it was time to talk about it.
So in this video I am going to show you how I built this jig and talk about the equipment I use. I also have a set of plans available on my website if you want to build one. This jig can be easily modified to work with most anything you want to roll up.
To start out I Cut the sides roughly to size and started my layout.
The fist circle I drew is a little larger than the bags diameter when rolled up.
The second circle is just to make it look good.
To cut the straight portion of the jig, I used my table saw to cut right up to where it started to curve, then shut the saw down and waited for the blade to stop. This gave me a nice straight clean cut to work from later on.
Then I headed over to the band saw to cut out the curved pieces. I was being lazy and didn’t want to change out the blade to one that will cut a tighter curve so I just hacked away at it like savage.
I sanded to the line at the spindle sander to clean up my circle, and while I was softened the sharp edges by rounding them over as well.
I’m going to use a wooden closet rod to wind up the bag so I drilled a hole slightly larger than the diameter of the rod so it would spin easily.
I ripped a few strips of plywood to act as the frame and cut them to length
I’m cutting a few mortises for floating tenons to help me keep everything aligned while I assemble the jig. If you don’t have a mortise cutter, you can use a dowel jig, router, or just skip this step.
Then I did a test fit to be sure everything lined up, here is where the floating tenons came in handy. They acted like a 3rd hand to hold it together.
Once I was happy with the fit, I counter sunk and screwed the jig together. I rarely glue my shop jig unless I need the extra strength. I always want the option to modify them as I go. After working with some jigs for a while I often find areas that could use improvement, so it’s easier to modify a jig when I can just take a few screws out of.
I of course picked through the entire selection of closet rods at the big box store to find the straightest bent rod they had.
Now I’m on to building the handle assembly and a few keeper rings to keep the closet rod from sliding out of the jig.
I used a hole saw to burn with friction through the wood. I think I used this particular hole saw to drill through some asphalt shingles on a roof to run a vent through on a past remodel project. So she was nice and dull.
Yeah we’re really smoking now so we are about burned through.
Once I got the keeper ring burned out, I used it as a template to trace out the shape for the swing arm portion of the handle.
I cut it out at the bandsaw.
More spindle sanding to clean it up
I drilled a hole in the swing arm to allow the closet rod to pass through, and did the same for the keeper ring
Then I used my pocket hole stepped drill bit instead of a proper counter sink bit to countersink for a screw to attach the handle. I made the hole a little wider than the screw so the handle would spin freely when in use.
Now the last piece to make before assembly was the handle itself. I used a piece of scrap maple, made it round and turned a few finger grips in it, just to get a little fancy.
Before assembly of the handle I pre drilled and countersunk through the edge of the plywood so I could add a set screw to attach the closet rod the handle and keeper rings.
I screwed the handle in place being sure it wasn’t so tight that it wouldn’t spin.
I put the closet rod in place and added the set screw to attach the handle to the rod. Then on the other side I left about a 1/8 in gap between the side and the keeper ring and screwed it in place as well. This should keep the rod from sliding out of the jig when in use.
To attach the bag to the closet rod, I used duct tape, and taped the crap out of it. It’s been on their three years and still holding strong.
My assembly table is 4ft by 8ft and the bag I bought is the heavy duty vinyl bag that is 5ft by 9ft, so to be able to take advantage of the full bag size I designed the jig to hang off the edge of the table and just be clamped in place when in use. This way I can unroll the whole bag.
When not in use, it gets stored out of the way on the top shelf.
The vacuum pump I use is from veneer supplies .com. They are not a sponsor,
I upgraded the pump so I can run multiple bags at a time. I haven’t done it yet but it would be nice to set up some smaller bags for multiple parts than rushing to get all the parts in this big bag.
I also use a breather mesh inside the bag to help evacuate all the air out. With the combination of the mesh and the flatness of my assembly table everything comes out flat
Here are some additional videos were I have used the vacuum system in, if you want to see it in action, and as always please subscribe and hit the bell to be notified, and most importantly. Thank you to my patreon supporters for helping make these video’s possible.


I’m the owner of Benham Design Concepts, a mixed media art studio where I design and build custom furniture and other works of art using wood, glass, stone, and various metals.
In this blog, I talk about the art I create, my journey, and the things I learn along the way.

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