Which Adhesive?

I'm planning on gluing a piece of 1/4" oak ply to a substrate of 1/2" pine. The size of the piece is about 2 ft. x 3 ft. I'm reluctant to use contact cement because of its solvent base and unforgiving character once the pieces come in contact. With no vacuum press available, I will just try to weigh the top piece down with a heavy anvil(or two) or some sandbags. The piece is going to be the field of a desktop with a solid oak border and breadboard ends. Any experiences with a similiar arrangement? "Why not just buy some

3/4 oak ply and be done with it?" you might ask. I could, but I use used materials whenever possible with my projects and that's what I have.

Larry

Reply to
Lawrence L'Hote
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You might want to try plastic resin glue or resorcinol.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Blazer

what's wrong with using normal wood glue?

Reply to
Charles Spitzer

there are water based contact cements available.

dave

Reply to
Bay Area Dave

There are safer contact cements available today that are non flammable. If your concern is about unforgiving contact, cut the top piece an inch oversized on all sides and don't worry about alignment. Use a router with a flush trim bit to make the top match the bottom piece.

Reply to
Leon

Thanks, Leon. That's what I'll do.

Larry

Reply to
Lawrence L'Hote

Reply to
DIYGUY

Just about any glue is unforgiving. However some will give you a little working time. As you like to use available materials, just use whatever glue you already have. Any glue will have enough strength.

You can limit the slipping if you drive a couple small brads through from the back side. Let them protrude about 1/8". As you lower the top piece for glueing the brads will limit any slipping. Also, your final dimensions do not seem to be exactly limited so you whould plan on cutting to final dimension after the glue is cured. That way minor slipping will be of no consequence.

Dick

Reply to
Richard Cline

SikaFlex 291 spread with a notched trowel will do a very nice job.

Keep it weighted down for a couple of days.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

I think you are wrong to avoid contact cement. 2 x 3 feet is so small you should have little trouble aligning it. If you do have trouble your technique is incorrect.

Nonetheless, an excellent alternative is Weldwood (or any other brand) Plastic Resin glue. Mixed correctly this glue is thin but doesn't do any gap filling (ideal for bonding two smooth surfaces). I used Weldwood Plastic resin to glue two pieces of 1/2 fir plywood together for a Radial saw table (about 4 x 2 feet) and it is still working fine 30 years later.

Reply to
George E. Cawthon

spreading the clamping pressure out is a good thing. sandbags are better than an anvil, more sandbags is better than less sandbags, and spread them out. both your 1/2" substrate and the 1/4" ply will want to flex under clamping pressure, so this layup should probably be done on a nice flat and solid surface. I think I'd be inclined to do it upside down (oak face down) and let the ply hang proud of the substrate a bit and trim afterward.

Reply to
bridger

Why not assemble it upside down, get the alignment right with any reasonable working-time glue you like and then "clamp" it together with screws that don't go all the way through the "top".

Norm

Reply to
Norm Dresner

Thu, Jul 8, 2004, 8:21pm (EDT+4) snipped-for-privacy@mchsi.com (Lawrence=A0L'Hote) claims: With no vacuum press available, I will just try to weigh the top piece down with a heavy anvil(or two) or some sandbags.

I never did see a response to why not regular woodworking glue. I'd use it, and probably nail the sucker down.

However, if you've got a nice large, flat piece of steel, that would work great, with a car or truck to hold it down. Or probably some heavy plywood would work in place of the steel. I heard of a guy who used to make his own plywood that way, huge steel plate, and park his pickup on it.

Making a success of the job at hand is the best step toward the kind you want.

- Bernard M. Baruch More likely, your boss gets a raise and/or promotion, from getting credit for your work.

- JOAT

Reply to
J T

Thanks for all the help. When I checked at the home store for contact cement the non-solvent stuff was almost twice as expensive as the solvent kind. I bought the solvent based and a small roller. I cut the piece of plywood about l in. larger than the substrate. Out on the deck, I applied about 3 coats of the cement on both pieces, following the instructions on the can and waited a half hour until tacky. No problem with attaching the pieces. Rolled and pounded the pieces together my 10 lb plastic coated dumb-bell weight. It's sitting out on the screened porch until I get a Downshear Flush Trim bit from routerbits.com. Will post the links to pictures of completed desk in a couple of weeks or so.

Larry

Reply to
Lawrence L'Hote

I'm wondering about the stability of your completed sandwich. At first, I thought you were talking about 1/2 inch pine PLY, but with the breadboard ends, began to think you meant 1/2 inch SOLID WOOD. I'm relatively new at this, but won't the pine expand/contract across the grain, while the oak ply will not? Wouldn't this either warp or self destruct? Then again, if it is 1/2 inch pine ply, why the breadboard ends?

Just curious.

Reply to
Gary

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 10:44:05 GMT, "Lawrence L'Hote" calmly ranted:

I reckon that's why the waterborne crap works half as well.

-------------------------------------------- -- I'm in touch with my Inner Curmudgeon. --

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

The plywood has a veneer of oak. I planned down the original desk top(solid pine) to half inch and glued the plywood to it. I wondered about the stability too but if the sucker warps and turns into a wood potato chip I'll rebuild it. If it's going to misbehave(I'll keep checking on it when I visit), it will probably do so in a year or two and I will just rebuild with a piece of 3/4" oak plywood and redo the edge. The breadboard ends will help control the warping and I just like bb ends on the tables I make. FWIW the top is sitting right now for another 2 days like it said to do on the can. I'm making molding for around the bottom of the desk at the moment. Made the molding 7/8 " thick yesterday but it looked too clunky so I redid it with thinner stock. Here it is just dry fitted. See @

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Reply to
Lawrence L'Hote

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