Which Edge Treatment?

[Brian Triplett]

Question for yall,
I plan on building a dvd storage case out of oak plywood for a friend, the plans call for the iron on veneer for an edge treatment, I just don't know if that will hold up over time. I was considering placing a thin (1"+/-) piece of solid oak at the edges or may be even cutting my own veneer. What would you do? (Plans are in the the December issued of Wood) Thanks!


Brian

[Bob Smalser]

Good call.

Mill up some matching solid stock to match the plywood thickness and use a 1/4" or smaller slotting cutter in the router (more accurate than the TS on long work pieces) and 1/4" or smaller plywood splines.

With the slotting cutter, it's real easy to make the grooves blind at the corners so the splines don't show, yet run them out far enuf that additional corner reinforcement for the solid edging isn't required.

Running the slotting cutter from both sides of the workpiece insures your slot is dead center.

These tops were made that way...one of them in 1900 or so, and the other to match...those are 4/4 X 3" edge treatments on 3/4" oak ply...and in some applications there is no reason not to have 1" edges on 3/4 ply for a thicker look:

[Ted Shrader]

Brian -

Cutting your own will be a lot better than iron on. If you cut relatively thin strips (¹/₈" or less) there won't be as much of a visual line on the side of the piece and they are stiff enough to glue and stout enough to last.

Your idea of a wider strip (~1" or so) will work also using Bob's spline tip. However, there is more of an edge to disguise. The typical oak plywood is rotary cut and the grain will be hard to match. You can spend more $$$ for different veneer cuts on the plywood face.

Regards,
Ted

[Dave Brandt]

And a mighty fine job you did on both Bob!

[Dave Wright #2]

This year I've done a fair amount of plywood edging for a bunch of bookshelves and storage cases. I too wondered about the iron-on edging durability, and figured that it looked more like factory work than handmade woodwork. My plywood varied somewhat in thickness. I got good results, or at least to my eye, by milling solid stock 1/32 - 1/16 thicker than the plywood, running a bead of glue, holding it about centered on the edge while popping in a few brads to keep it from shifting, and clamping the workpieces edge-to-edge while the glue cured. Afterward I flushed the edging to the plywood panel with a block plane.

A nice option of this approach is that you can make some of the trim thicker and profiled. On my cases the horizontal trim was 1/4" thick and square edged. Vertical pieces were 3/4" thick and rounded. The overall effect is more like solid lumber work but I can make the cases with simple through dados and rabbets cut at the table saw.

[Richard McComas]

I have use a lot of iron on edge banding over the years. My experience with it has bee good. One of my first kitchen that I built in 1989 which is just a couple miles down the road form me and I get to see it quite often. Not one piece of that iron on banding has failed.

They only iron on banding I know of that has failed was on a cabinet I installed over the top of a clothes drier and the customer installed one of the stack robber "things" that blew hot moist air directly against the banding.

Personally I think it holds up very well.

[Jack Norfleet]

I am building the same project and tried cutting my own 1/8 th inch thick strips. After gluing the first one without much success (I should have used cauls to spread the clamp pressure instead of just a bunch of clamps), I decided to get some iron on edging to save time. Time will tell if it is the right decision.

If you do cut your own, definitely provide clamp pressure accross the entire face or you may get slight waves with very visible glue lines or gaps. Don't ask me how I know .

[Bob Smalser]

Depends on what you're trying to do with the piece.

Glue on an 8th-inch strip or iron-on veneer and in 25 years of use the edge will look like all the usual suspects down at at the GoodWill store.

For the same amount of trouble you can apply a 3"-wide piece of stock and nobody will be sure just how old it is or how it was done after 25 years of use...but they'll know it was a higher-end job:

[Brian Triplett]

Thanks Bob,
I think will go your route, I’ve being trying to convince this friend not to go down to the local "Big box" store and buy a piece that will fall apart in three years. I would hate for him to come back and tell me that my piece was coming apart.