Just finished a bookshelf for my kid—a few observations from a framer

I went through the same transition when I built a storage bench for my daughter last winter. Coming from a background where a 1/8-inch gap is 'close enough,' trying to get tight miters on shop-grade plywood was a massive wake-up call. I thougth my old DeWalt jobsite saw would be fine, but I ended up having to buy a dedicated finish blade just to keep the birch from splintering into a mess.

The edge banding is definitely a soul-crushing task. I tried using a cheap iron from a thrift store and ended up with glue everywhere. These days, I usually skip the iron-on stuff and just rip some thin 1/4-inch strips of solid wood on the table saw. Glue those onto the plywood edges with some painters tape for pressure, and you can sand them perfectly flush. It takes a little more wood, but it saves your sanity and holds up way better when the kids start banging thier toy trucks into the shelves. The jump from framing to furniture realy makes you realize that furniture makers are just masochists who like working in fractions of a millimeter.

I had the opposite reaction to the edge banding. I tried it once on a mudroom locker set and swore it off imediately becasue I couldn't get the trim tool to stop digging into the veneer. Now, whenever I'm doing built-ins or kids' furniture, I just rip down some 1x2 poplar or pine and nail on a proper face frame. It hides the plywood edges much better and adds a ton of stiffness to the shelves so they don't sag under those heavy hardcovers. Since you're used to framing, you probly allready have a 16-gauge or 18-gauge finish nailer. Using some Titebond II and a few brads to attach solid wood trim feels way more natural than standing there with a household iron and a utility knife. Plus, if you're using birch, the poplar takes paint or stain close enugh that most people won't notice the difference. It adds maybe twenty bucks to the material cost, but it saves alot of frustration when you're trying to wrap up a project before Sunday dinner.

I feel you on the edge banding. I wasted a whole afternoon on it once before I realized I could just use iron-on birch and an old clothes iron. The trick that actually worked for me was using a block of wood to press it down hard while it's still hot, then using a sharp chisel instead of those plastic trimmer tools. Those trimmers always gouge the wood. For kids' stuff, I’ve started just rounding over the plywood edges with a router and painting them. If you’re painting it anyway, a little wood filler and a sander makes the plys disappear and you don't have to deal with peeling tape later.

Forget the iron-on stuff if it's driving you crazy. I switched to FastCap FastEdge peel-and-stick banding years ago and never looked back. The adhesive is incredibly aggressive, so you don't have to worry about it lifting later on.

To handle the trimming without the headache, get yourself a FastCap Quad Trimmer. It’s way better than those single-blade trimmers becasue it has four cutting edges and handles both sides of the board at once. It’s the only way I’ve found to get a clean edge on birch plywood without constantly worrying about tear-out or ruining the finish.

Nice work, but if you're sticking with the iron-on stuff, you need to ditch the household iron and grab a dedicated edge banding iron like the Virutex PEB250 or even a cheap Rockler model. The consistent heat makes a world of difference. Also, skip those plastic trimmers everyone complains about; I use a sharp 1-inch Tajima scraper or a dedicated flush-trim bit in a Makita compact router. If you're worried about that shop birch splintering, throw a Freud LU88R010 crosscut blade on your table saw. It’ll give you a glass-smooth edge that makes the banding seat perfectly every time.