Hi, I'm very, very new to wood-working
Still in the "thinking about it" stage :)
I was just wondering, when you use a veneered plywood, how do you hide the edges if you're using a router to shape them??
Thanks, Matt
hi matt,
you can use plywood that has reasonable exposed edges, such as baltic birch, and shape it directly with your router. or, you can "band" the plywood edges with solid wood and shape that. whenever i work with ply, i apply a nice thick solid edging - personally i don't like the look of exposed baltic birch edges, but many do.
if you decide to apply solid banding, consider applying it thicker than the plywood (i.e. hanging over both sides) and then trimming to the proper thickness once the glue is dry. i rough trim with a router, and then clean it up with a sharp hand plane.
good luck!
--- dz
M Townsend wrote:
One way to get around this problem is to put a strip of solid wood on the edge of the plywood and route that.
If you're using 3/4" plywood or maybe a little thinner, you can use 3/4" veneer edging strips. It comes in pre-glued iron on form and use your own white glue type. Typically, it comes in rolls of varying lengths 8' and longer. It's not that expensive and works quite well. If it's really thin plywood, say 1/8" or so then for all practical purposes, all you can do is to stain and seal the edges. I've used veneer edging on 3/8" plywood before, but it's difficult to get it to stay on securely.
Don't get too aggressive around that verneer, it is about 3 microns thick and you can easily sand it off.
Your right thats the thick stuff usually it's much thiner : )
Sorry if this is not the proper place for this question. Perhaps someone can suggest somewhere else if this is OT.
During the recent storm, we had three large black walnut trees come down. A guy at work said that this is alot of valuable wood. I called a couple of mills nearby and they said that by the time we had the tree picked up and hauled over there, it wouldn't be worth the effort. My wife and I came up with the idea of making a sort of keep-sake by cutting (chainsaw) a 3 or 4 inch thick disk from one tree (about 40 inch diameter), sanding and finishing it and putting it on a pedestal (sp?) as a small table. Is this idea feasible? Would it have to be dried somehow, or could we just leave it in the basement (6 months? 1 year?) until it was ready to to be worked with. Would this type of treatment make it warp or crack? We would like to keep the bark on, but I think the saw would probably mutilate that. Any thoughts would be welcome. Thanks. Bill
Greetings and Salutations... Uh yea...they are worthless...where are you..perhaps one of the folks here could come by and, out of the goodness of their heart, "help you out" by hauling some of that trash off for you.
Did you tell them that it was 40" in diameter? That is a good size and, even though it IS a "yard tree", it would likely be worth the chance. However, instead of that (or perhaps in addition to that), I would suggest contacting woodmizer to see if there is someone in the area that could bring the sawmill to you. Now...as for cutting a slab... That is "possible", but could be a challenge. The only way that would have a chance of success is to get a container big enough to hold the slab. Then, get some PEG, and soak it for a while - say - six months or so. Here is a link for the PEG
That may stabilize it enough that it will not crack. However, if it DOES...then, don't think of it as a defect...think of the crack as a design component. Follow Nakashima's example, and, put in a couple of butterflys to tie it together, or, fill it with black Epoxy and polish it off. Alternatively, if you have a WoodCraft in the vicinity, (or, any other shop that concentrates on woodworking tools) post a notice that turning blanks are available. I suspect you will see the trees vanish in record time. Regards Dave Mundt
I'm not an expert in this area, but here are my thoughts...
A slab / disk of the tree won't make a very strong table top because the grain is running vertically.
The disk would most likely get quite a lot of checking (or even splitting) during the drying process. The thicker the board is the more prone it is to checking.
One last note.. You may want to do more research and see if you can find a "port-a-mill" in your area. Port-a-mill owners will cut the tree on location. Also, there are some good articles on "air-drying" out there if you have the time, energy and space for it..
Good luck.
They sure make a lot of tables out of cypress slabs around here. Once you soak both sides with Epoxy I am not sure how you would break it. I have one with some pretty thin "arms" sticking out that have held up to plenty of abuse. It is out on my patio now.
It takes about a year an inch to air dry wood. It has to be stored in a stable environment and sticker'd (separated so the air can circulate completely around the wood.
You will almost assuredly have some cracking and splits in the pieces but for the kind of table top you are talking about many feel it adds to the natural look of the piece.
Good luck.
My apologies Trevor. I can't think of a non blunt way to put it but, even though the logic is reasonable, it's incorrect.
If that were the case quarter sawn arts and crafts style furniture's tops would also be failing all over the place and George Nakajima's natural slab table tops grace places such as Buckingham Place and the White House.
Of course if you were to make the top really thin you could have the problem.
Where the table top is end grain showing the rings? I'm sure that they are made, but I wouldn't expect any thin areas to hold up well at all unless the strength is coming from the epoxy. There are probably some woods that hold together better than others in this type of situation, but none will be as strong as if the top is cut like a regular board with the grain running lengthwise.
I probably shouldn't used the word "slab" at all.. as that word alone makes me think of a regular thick board (perhaps with the bark on the sides yet)...
Now I am curious about your table... Is it cut so that the end grain is the table top? How "thin" are the arms? and where are you located that these tables are so popular?
Just yesterday afternoon I e-mailed the customer service e-mail address at woodmizer (at the suggestion of someone here in this group). By this morning, when I read my e-mail, they had sent me 4 contact names and numbers of peole in the area that do portable sawmill work. GREAT service and excellent idea!
Like I said, I am not an expert, and I could very well be wrong as I usually build with regular boards rather than circular stump disks... but I'm not convinced yet.
Your example of arts and crafts style furniture tops is not the same as what I believe the original poster was talking about. I understand that quartersawn lumber is cut so that the growth rings are perpendicular to the width of the board, but the fibers are running the length of the board and not vertically (as in the ring cut from a tree -- like a very short log) In short, quartersawn lumber does not have end grain at the top/bottom of the board, but at the ends just like any other plain sawn or rift sawn boards...
A simple example of my thoughts (incorrect or otherwise) is seen by how firewood is relatively easy to split down the length of the log -- and a short log would be even easier to split or break...
I'm not trying to be argumentative, but am in search of the answer... -- or maybe there is some misunderstanding somewhere, but I have a hard time believing that a 1" thick disk (with end grain at the top and bottom) will be as strong as a 1" thick board with the wood running lengthwise. ???
-Trevor
p.s. - Unfortunately, I wasn't able to google up any examples of George Nakajima's work online to see what you were talking about (I didn't spend hours looking...)
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