laminating

[charliex]

I am building a desk for my daughter using BB ply for the carcase. I want the grain on the sides vertical, and because of the movement issues I couldn't use solid wood. I planed on covering the sides (9" high 22 long) with grey elm; the grain vertical. I re-sawed the elm and planed it to .150. It takes 3 pieces 7 1/2 X 9 1/2 giving me 2 joints. per glue-up. I did one using TB III and had a rough time keeping the joints tight while clamping. While trying to find a better method, (thinking contact cement) I discovered I could still have movement problems.
3 questions:
1 Is this a bad idea?
2 If not what is a good glue to use ?.
3 If it is a bad idea what should I do ?????????

[Black wallnut]

I am building a desk for my daughter using BB ply for the carcase. I want the grain on the sides vertical, and because of the movement issues I couldn't use solid wood. I planed on covering the sides (9" high 22 long) with grey elm; the grain vertical. I re-sawed the elm and planed it to .150. It takes 3 pieces 7 1/2 X 9 1/2 giving me 2 joints. per glue-up. I did one using TB III and had a rough time keeping the joints tight while clamping. While trying to find a better method, (thinking contact cement) I discovered I could still have movement problems.
3 questions:
1 Is this a bad idea?

Which idea? banding the edges; no or using contact cement; not sure but I would not.

2 If not what is a good glue to use ?.

Titebond II would be my first next would be tightbond, then a white woodworking glue.

3 If it is a bad idea what should I do ?????????

I'm not sure what you demensions are. Keeping in mind wood moves across the grain much more than it moves along the grain I see no problems with gluing solid wood along the edges that are visable once the project is assembled. This is a standard practise. Unless you are doing a frame and panel design and edging each whole panel with solid wood with the grain all oriented in the same direction and then that would be a terrible idea. If you are raising the panels use a miter joint on the joins of your edging and do not worry about the change in grain. Since you are already mixing species of wood a change in grain direction will not look any more out of place IMHO as just the change in species. Which I do not think would look too bad.

[mschrank]

Which idea? banding the edges; no or using contact cement; not sure but I would not.

Titebond II would be my first next would be tightbond, then a white woodworking glue.

I'm not sure what you demensions are. Keeping in mind wood moves across the grain much more than it moves along the grain I see no problems with gluing solid wood along the edges that are visable once the project is assembled. This is a standard practise. Unless you are doing a frame and panel design and edging each whole panel with solid wood with the grain all oriented in the same direction and then that would be a terrible idea. If you are raising the panels use a miter joint on the joins of your edging and do not worry about the change in grain. Since you are already mixing species of wood a change in grain direction will not look any more out of place IMHO as just the change in species. Which I do not think would look too bad.

It sounds like he's basically veneering the faces with the elm, not edging. I can't be of any help as I've never done anything like this...I just wanted to try and help clear up any confusion.

[Black wallnut]

It sounds like he's basically veneering the faces with the elm, not edging. I can't be of any help as I've never done anything like this...I just wanted to try and help clear up any confusion.

Ohh now it makes more sense. If this is the case either yellow or whate glue is what I would use and no real need to worry about wood movement. It is commonly advised to add the veneer to both sides of the plywood to totally prevent any movement.

[charliex]

Mike, Thank you for making my post "understandable". Mark Thank you for your response. Since I already have one of the four sides done with TB 3 glue I was hoping that someone would ok this method. The desk is one featured in vol 29 / # 170 Woodsmith mag. I made a small grey elm bookcase for her and now she wants a desk to match. Nice wood to work with kind of like Maple

[drumpriest]

Charliex, here is my advise, based on a fair amount of veneer work.

Glue the veneer cross grain to the exposed plywood grain, and veneer BOTH SIDES. If you do not, you are likely to get warped plywood when you are done. The thick outter shell will absorb moisture at a different rate than the plywood veneer, and expand and contract differently, thus cupping the piece. As for your gap problems, try edge gluing the 3 veneers together using titebond. Use something heavy over the joints to keep them flat while you get just enough clamping pressure to pull them together. Another option here is to use veneer tape to hold them together, it's a water activated tape made for just this purpose.

Here are my answers to your 3 questions...

1. Not a bad idea at all, if you cross grain glue on both sides the results should be nice and stable.

2. Titebond II for edges, then cold press veneer glue for the lamination.

3. see 1.

btw, try and get good even clamping pressure across your surface when you do the veneering glue-up. stack mdf (I wax mine), then use cauls across it and lots of clamps.