A pal has been given an old table he thinks may be quite nice - but has plywood glued to the top. He says it looks like Evostick contact adhesive has been used. Any tips on removing it with minimal damage to the original wood?
Angle grinder? (used cautiously, of course)
Angle grinder, naturally.
=A0 London SW
Jonathan
Like this ?
If the original wood underneath is veneered then some of that is likely to be ripped off, if its solid wood then any damage could be planed. I cant see how any solvent (other than at the edges) would get to the glue so think its a case of rip it off and fingers crossed.
Drill to fixed depth less than the plywood put in some linear shallow cuts and add solvent. Cover and leave for a few days topping up from time to time. Biggest problem is that all the effective penetrating solvents for Evostick are either highly flammable or banned these days. You might be able to get it a bit at a time but cutting in without hitting the good wood underneath will be a bit tricky.
There is a serious risk that the plywood was put on top for a very good reason and all your efforts will be wasted.
Big chisel.Split the plywood layer by layer.
Then when you're nearly down to it, investigate one patch and see why they stuck plywood over the top in the first place. I'm assuming that it was veneered and that the veneer has failed. So then you can break out the belt sander, take it down to the substrate timber and then re- veneer it. (Hot hide glue BTW, it's still the best way)
Otherwise just go and buy a table. Brown furniture is really cheap these days.
I can't think of a solvent that will soften cured evostick.
Heat will soften it though. Maybe split the ply as others have suggested with a large (1 1/2" or 2") chisel they use a heat gun to (carefully) warm it all up and peel the ply off. Might not need to split the ply if it's thin, which might make the peeling easier.
Not sure what you'll do with any evostick residue it'll clog sanding stuff almost instantly, you might get away with something really coarse,
40 grit?
It will come off with xylene, Hammerite brush cleaner or petrol (in about that order of preference to use) and a chisel or scraper.
Do this outside and well away from any possible sources of ignition if you wish to stay alive. Don't breathe the fumes either.
It will but its massively messy and scarcely worth it.
Plane the lot off and than look at what's left.
Oh for sure celluose thinners will in time dissolve it. It was the only way I could ever clean up spills of it.
There is a pukka Evostick solvent. One of those products not on display in the sheds - so obviously glue sniffer nirvana. Pretty pricey, though.
Original evostick was toluene based. The EU banned that use, and it now uses something else which doesn't work as well (which may be good for the OP). So it may depend when it was glued.
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