Joining the long grain veneer sheets together is a little bit more difficult. These sheets need to be strong along the grain (which runs front the back on the deck), and adding a joint that is perpendicular to the grain will create a weak point in the veneer sheet.

There are a couple ways that we can help prevent the joint on these layers from weakening:

1) Cut the veneer on an angle. If you create a joint that runs diagonally through the veneer sheet as opposed to right across the width, it will help disperse the pressure on any one spot of the joint. It will still be weaker than if there was no joint, but once glued up between the other layers, it will help make for a stronger joint. It also creates a longer edge for gluing which will help the two sides bond together.

2) Stagger your joints in between each layer. If you have all of your joints in the same spot for every layer of the board, it will inevitably be weaker in that area. You can see in the photos that the joint is in a different spot along the length of each sheet of veneer, and we also flip the angle of each one before pressing. This will drastically help the strength of your deck after it has been pressed.

To create the diagonal cut on each sheet, we cut them on a miter saw. We set the angle at 31.6 degrees, which is a preset notch on our saw, and cut each sheet per layer to match our 60" design. Some of the joints needed a little extra sanding to help get tight, but this method proved to be pretty quick and accurate.

Once all of the sheets were paired up at 60" long, we glued the diagonal edge and taped them together the same way as the cross grain sheets.