I have been commanded to build a cabinet for our bedroom out of teak. My suggestions for interesting alternatives were ignored.
I have never used plywood (except 1/4" for door panels) so I don't know much about it's properties. The furniture I am putting it with is veneered plywood panels with solid edge pieces. How do I glue the solids to the plywood and get them to look right? Obviously I can't joint, glue, and plane them like I would solids.
Any advice, or references, would be appreciated.
As it turns out, yes you can glue them, plane them, and generally do anything to them you have done to solid edges.
I'm not sure what you mean by "look right" but a solid wood edge glued to a piece of plywood looks pretty good if done correctly.
Teak is more difficult to deal with because of oils in the wood that need to be removed "before" gluing. Wipe down both pieces with acetone and glue as normal.
Furniture has been made with plywood for over 100 years which means it's a proven product.
These folks have them other answers:
Wade Lippman wrote:
You can joint the plywood edge and your edging piece right? The problem is just alignment of one or both faces during glueup so that you don't need to plane. Biscuits or dowels work well, and are a good idea for strength as well since you will be gluing to the edge of plywood. Then a hand scraper works well to get the surface perfectly flush. Ideally your solid wood piece will be ever so slightly proud (rather than the opposite). Some masking tape on the plywood while you scrape helps protect the thin veneer on the plywood while you sneak up on flush.
Get a Tongue & Groce router bit set to join the hard wood to the plywood. As suggested, wipe down to remove oil then apply glue. Make sure the grove is on the plywood.
I haven't tried this, but it looks interesting... Got some decent reviews too.
lot of good info so far. i just finished a bunch of birch banding on birch ply, I used a block plane to "sneak up on flush", didn't use any masking tape and only one 'error"(first plane experience). i used biscuits to assist with the alignment, make sure your biscuit cutter is aligned properly. FWW last issue did a test on "oily woods" and yellow glue, glued dry, wiped with acetone and lightly sanded. the acetone wipe helped very little but sanding just before gluing helped a bunch. Poly glue was suggested for most oily woods.
Several articles recently on edge banding and there is a new router bit set that is supposed to make it much easier but fairly pricey.
BRuce
Wade Lippman wrote:
I am unfamiliar with scraping. That is better for this application than sanding?
I am not sure how to say this without sounding sarcastic, but you mean tongue and groove? I have a t&g router bit, but I don't have a biscuit cutter, so that would be better for me, if it is what you mean. I have not tried cutting a grove in plywood; it works out well?
On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 20:28:58 GMT, "Wade Lippman" scribbled
I don't know how well teak glues, but I've used solid edging up to
3/4" wide on different plywoods. I make the edging about 1/16" thicker than the plywood. To glue, I apply glue on both sides and rub the edging back and forth a few times until it sticks on its own. In the past, I've tried clamping, biscuits, nails, but I realised that none of these are needed. Once the glue sticks, I just use masking tape to clamp and hold the edging in place. Once the glue is dry (the next day), I trim the edging using a flush trim bit on a trim router, or a hand plane. I have not had a failure yet.Luigi Replace "no" with "yk" twice in reply address for real email address
"Man is a tool-using animal. Weak in himself and of small stature, he stands on a basis of some half-square foot, has to straddle out his legs lest the very winds supplant him. Nevertheless, he can use tools, can devise tools: with these the granite mountain melts into light dust before him: seas are his smooth highway, winds and fire his unwearying steeds. Nowhere do you find him without tools. Without tools he is nothing: with tools he is all." Thomas Carlyle
Exactly....I agree completely with the last posting. No need for tongue and groove...just glue on and clamp or use masking tape. I also use the flush trim bit and it works wonderfully.
Bill
In order of preference depending on the quality of the project, I use (e.g.. hardwood veneered plywood for cabinetry.
1) Face frames if they're applicable. 2) Veneer strips with white glue 3) 1/2" thick strips of hardwood 4) Veneer strips that are already pre-glued (Iron on type)I often use the last method when I'm going to paint my project and it's cheap, good one side or both sides plywood.
This has worked well for me also. I leave the banding a little wider than the plywood, rub it back and forth to get a good glue bond and then I use that blue painter's tape instead of masking tape. It gives less trouble when you go to remove it. I have trimmed the banding down using a router but I prefer to plane it close to the surface and finish it by sanding when I sand the plywood. I have built several projects using this technique and have had no problems.
Frank
Why are the pre-glued your last choice? I have no real experience at any veneering, except that I bought some pre-glued at a garage sale to play with, and it seemed to work pretty well. Is it not durable, or what?
It can be. The problem with sanding in this case is the ease with which you can sand through the veneer of the plywood, not to mention dishing the surface, which will really show badly on something like a table top. Scraping is much more controllable and once you get the hang of it, faster.
Wade, reading some of the other replies I see that "solid edge pieces" means diff things to diff folks. At the minimum, you might just want to cover the edge of the plywood, and that could be anything from a thin veneer up to whatever, but thin enough that it can just be glued. My previous reply described what I would do if adding 1 or 2 or more inches of solid wood to the edge of plywood. For me, a table top doesn't look right with just a thin strip covering the edge, while a couple of inches of solid wood look right fine. But then, you did not say table top did you? Just my opinion of course, but obviously my suggestion of biscuits or dowels is not going to work with thin banding strips. Just thought I needed to clear that up.
It's durable enough, it's just that I usually hand sand off the excess veneer edge and the glue remnants makes it more difficult to sand, slowing the process down. Also, if I don't sand or trim carefully enough to remove all visible traces of the pre-glue, it affects the uniformity of the stain that I apply. In addition to that, the pre-glued stuff is marginally thicker then what you'd apply in white carpenter's glue form so the veneer strips aren't as close to the plywood edge, sometimes making it noticeable. That's why I use the pre-glued mostly with paint jobs, any remnant can just be painted over.
Of course. You can even make biscuit joints with a circular saw (been there, done that).
It took me a bit to respond to this but I had to find my source first :-).
The Router Workshop has the following tip for edge banding:
The latest FWW issue had an interesting article on this. The author suspected that wiping oily woods was not that effective. He theorized that quick drying solvents draw out as much contaminant as it wipes off. So, he tested a few identical pieces: one simply glued; one wiped then glued; and the third with his (now preferred) method, light sanding. The first two reached an almost identical stress point break--they were within 10 psi if I recall. The third method was far stronger.
I'd always understood wiping oily woods a good idea, but recognizing the physiology of wood and chemical makeup of glue, and understanding why bonds fail are important. On oily woods it fails owing to contaminants in the wood. That they might be drawn out of the wood by quick-drying solvents and thus frustrate the intent of wiping had never occurred to me.
I'll have to try this soon. Anyone have 100 bf of mahogany lying around so I can experiment?
Regards, H
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