Laminating paper to furniture or game boards (Cornhole)?

[Danny Thompson]

Not fine woodworking, but . . .

I am making a couple of 2'x4' game boards (Cornhole--similar to horseshoes or washers, but with beanbags filled with corn). These boards are commonly customized with team logos, but LOML suggested I try laminating movie posters to ours.

Does anyone have experience laminating paper or posters to furniture or game boards? Got any advice about how to accomplish this without smearing the ink?

[Lee Schierer]

They do this all the time in decoupage. Try this link decoupage

[Mike McCann]

Here is a corn hole forum you cna check out.

cornholeplayers.net

I believe you can use water based polycrylic over the posters onto the boards.

[Rob Bodenschatz]

Here is a corn hole forum you cna check out.

Proving once again that there is a forum for everything.

[Danny Thompson]

I posted the same question over there, yesterday morning, but still no responses.

My concern about the decoupage method is that I expect white glue to saturate the posters to the point that they won't lay flat. Am I wrong about that?

[Larry Conely]

Fine Woodworking had an article a few years ago about using a flour based glue. I have used it with exceptional results on paper and felt. It has a fairly long set time, so it is quite forgiving. You have a long time to squeegy out air bubbles, reposition, etc. Mix flour and water, (I forget exact proportions right now) Boil. Let cool. Add alum to increase shelf life. Works like a dream. So far, I have not had anything separate. I believe it to be reversible, but I've never tried.

Larry

[Howard Acheson]

Guy down the street made one up. He used wall paper glue and a squeegee to glue the paper to the wood. We then sprayed 3-4 coats of Minwax Spray Polyurethane (shaker can). Works just fine. Don't leave it out in the rain however.

[Richard Magbanua]

Hey, cool idea!
I know that you can get clear adhesive vinyl from the sign suppliers. This is the same stuff we make signs and vehicle decals from. It's pretty tough stuff and should hold up pretty well. The downside is that it might be a bit of a challenge for you to put it on without wrinkles or bubbles unless you make signs. Make sure you pick up a plastic sign squeegee. Another thing you could do is use a thin sheet of acrylic laid over the poster and attach it with screws and brass washers.
Good luck and let us know what you end up doing. We'd like to see them. I might even try it myself.

[Josiah Bartlett]

Why not use 3M artist's adhesive? Its a contact cement in a spray can, you apply it to both surfaces and then roll the poster onto the wood, then roll over it just like applying formica. It has the advantage of not saturating the poster. You might want to seal the wood surface with Shellac first.

[Pete Brown]

Here is a corn hole forum you cna check out.

cornholeplayers.net

Where I come from, that means something very different, and I would be unlikely to click that link

Pete

[Danny Thompson]

The Halloween party was Saturday night, so we had to work quickly. We painted the boards, then sprayed the back of the poster pieces with 3M Super 77 adhesive spray and applied them on top of the gloss paint--so far so good. I, then, sprayed a coat of gloss Minwax Polycrylic (spray can) over the poster pieces to provide a protective layer. Again, so far so good. This was about 11:00 Friday night.

At 2:00 a.m. LOML rolled on a topcoat of gloss Polycrylic (not the spray can, the regular liquid). Yikes! The posters puckered up like a 5th grader with a mouthful of Warheads! Puckered posters don't make for a very smooth game board, of course, so we had to do something, and quick. The poly was drying by the second.

Plan B -- Decoupage. First step, CAREFULLY peel the posters from the surface. Since the posters were already wet with the poly, instead of a white glue wash we opted for saturating them with more poly. One at at time, we layed each poster piece in the paint tray, poured on poly, let it sit for a minute or so, and laid it in place, carefully smoothing and squeezing out the poly from underneath with my hands. Tons of poly sqeezed out--enough to brush over the rest of the boards.

6:30 am, rolled on a second coat of poly. 9:30, a third. That was it.

At 8:00 p.m., the boards were in action. There are a few wrinkles and minor puckers, but I attribute that to remnants of plan A, where the posters puckered and dried some before we could get them peeled and into the poly bath.

Suggestions:
- If you can get a vinyl decal, do it.
- Skip the adhesive spray and the spray poly.
- If you use paper use the decoupage method. Using the polycryic seems to have worked.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. We'll see how long they hold up.

[Danny Thompson]

Oh, one last point. Be careful not to rub the face of the posters too aggressively or the colors will bleed.

[Charlie Plesums]

I often glue instructions or "signing" of pieces to my furniture.

Print whatever on a laser or ink jet printer

Spray a thin coat of lacquer (NC or water based) on the front of the print-out to "set" the ink/toner, and set it aside to dry. Ignore the curl.

Spread a dilute coat of wood glue (usually the yellow glue that is always around) over the work. Be sure to spread it very thin and evenly. Sometimes I do the diluting by spraying the workpiece with a water mister, and then rolling out a squirt of wood glue until it is even.

Lay the lacquered print-out in the glue, and rub from the center to the edges to remove any air. If you got the glue thin enough, there won't be glue bubbles coming out. There will be a little pucker in the paper, because of the moisture expanding the back of the paper, but it will shrink out when it dries. While you are rubbing, use a damp rag to clean up excess glue. If you get a small tear in the paper, just match the edges, and stick it down.

Note that the back of the paper is still porous (good for gluing), and the wood is hopefully bare (good for gluing), but I have done this over primed wood also.

After a couple hours in the sun to dry, spray the usual finish coats over the wood and paper.

[Danny Thompson]

Charles,

So it curls while the lacquer dries, but is still flexible enough that it flattens when you glue it down? Does the yellow glue affect the color of your "signing?"

Thanks,

Danny

Danny

[Charlie Plesums]

A very light coat of lacquer on the front and it curls a little... just enough to be irritating, but not enough to keep it from sticking.

I usually just print on cheap office paper, and probably get more yellow showing through from the wood than from the glue. The glue is so thin that it is virtually transparent.