Help gluing pictures to plywood for Pour-on Bar top.

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02-15-2011, 5:12 PM
Luis Leyva

Help gluing pictures to plywood for Pour-on Bar top.

Hello,
I make game tables and customize them with names and images of flags of sports team logos or whatever. Being a photographer, I am very familiar with Photoshop and have access to printing my artwork. I then painfully cut the images out to layout on my woodwork. They need to be glued and let to dry for the pour on resin the next day. My problem is that I cannot find a glue that will adhere the larger pictures permanently. Then over time it gets an air bubble and that's not good. I have been suggested to not primer and paint the surface that I will stick my picture to. Makes sense. I guess titebond yellow wood glue on an unfinished plywood. The problem is that I need the surface to be black so that I can glue my letters on a black surface. I can't expect to paint around the letters so that the letters would be on an unpainted surface. Anybody have a suggestion?
02-15-2011, 6:42 PM
Phil Phelps

You need to look into the 3-M family for a spray mount. They have several products and I'm sure one of them will fit your needs.
02-15-2011, 6:44 PM
Chris Padilla

I guess I don't understand how an air bubble forms over time. Once you pour the resin over everything, doesn't that effectively lock/glue everything in place pretty much permanently?

Otherwise, I think epoxy should work fine to glue your pictures permanently.

Another idea is to trace your letters around some paper...tack that down...paint...pull up the paper to reveal unpainted wood and glue to that. I might make the paper letter a skosh smaller so as to ensure all black around the letter due to slight misalignments. There is likely enough unpainted surface to adhere your glue.
02-15-2011, 9:52 PM
Casey Gooding

The way I've always understood it is that with these pour on finishes, the pictures were simply laid on top and the finish poured over them. I may be mistaken, though.
02-16-2011, 1:27 PM
Jim Rimmer

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil Phelps

You need to look into the 3-M family for a spray mount. They have several products and I'm sure one of them will fit your needs.

+1 on the 3M spray adhesive. I glued some color photos printed on plain paper to wood with 3M 77 (I think) and then sprayed shellac over it. No problems. But then it was a toy so no major issue if it did develop an issue.