Rounded Corner

[jx67]

Hi There,

I am making a table. Originally planning to use plywood as the top and frame the edge, but wife wants it to be rounded. Just wonder what's the usual technique. I could round the corner, but the plywood table would still be square, so it probably won't look good at all.

One option is not to use plywood, but joining different pieces together and do a rounding. But that's obviously more work.

Thanks,
Joe.

[gsmittle]

You could make the edging thicker, so there's plenty of meat for rounding the edge. Or try making the edging out of a contrasting wood; that might look pretty good. Or round the ply and use an iron-on veneer edge.

g.

[JR]

I am making a table. Originally planning to use plywood as the top and frame the edge, but wife wants it to be rounded.

I'm not quite sure what is to be rounded. The edge? The corner? Are thinking roundover or bullnose?

In any case, use an hardwood edging on the plywood and you can do pretty much anything to it that you like. Depending on what look you are going for it might make more sense to do the roundover before attaching the edging - or vice versa.

JR

[LCHIEN]

its not clear if you want to put a roundover on the edge, or whether you want to put a radius on the corners.
Either way, you got some good advice in the previous posts.

[jx67]

Should have make it a bit clearer. What I am thinking is that I would like to round two of the four corners. Then, I also need to make the edge with a round profile. I am not sure if veneer would work. I might need to draw a picture to show it better.

What's an edge thicker? That sounds interesting.

Thanks,
Joe.

[JR]

It's very common to use plywood to make a table top. One normally attaches an edge band to hide the layers of plywood.

The edge band does not necessarily have to be the same thickness as the plywood. If you're using 3/4" plywood you could make the edge band 1" or more in thickness, giving the appearance of thicker tabletop. The edge band can be as deep as you like, 1", 2", whatever. This will give you the material necessary to do your roundovers.

I don't know about rounding two of the four corners. Why not all four?

JR

[MikeMcCoy]

Just a suggestion but if you put your general location in your profile you might find some major assistance locally since the forum members are all over the country (not to mention several other continents )

[jx67]

Here's what I am thinking (see attached jpg). My worry is the the rounded corner on the frame would not look good with the straight corner of the plywood.

Thanks,
Joe.

[JR]

Clear as a bell!

No, the rounded corners are not going to look bad against the squqre corners of the plywood. Use maple plywood and it will just all blend together when you finish it.

Now, rounding those corners may be a challenge, depending on the radius you want. There are probably a bunch of different ways to approach the problem. Here's how I'd do it.

1. Assemble the tabletop, making the corners square.
2. Rough cut the corners using a bandsaw or jigsaw. Make sure your cuts are bold of the line you want in the finished product.
3. Create a template in the exact shape of the rounded corner.
4. Use carpet tape to stick the template to the assembled table top.
5. Use a pattern bit in a router to follow the shape of the template, finisihing the shape of the corner. If your template represents just one corner, you'll need to move it to each of thee other three corners.
6. Use a bullnose bit all around to get that edge profile you drew. This can also be done by using a roundover bit around the top, then once again around the underside of the tabletop.

HTH,
JR

[cabinetman]

If you don't want to do the router/template method, you could mount the edge band (1.5"), draw the radius for the curve...that will be 1.5" also if you want the width to follow around the top. Then jigsaw the curve close to the line. Then use a belt sander, or a block sander and smooth out the curve to the line.

Then use your round over (radius bit) to do the bullnose.
.

[jx67]

Wow, you guys are the greatest. Thank you so much, everyone. I guess I will go ahead to try and see how it will look.

Thanks again,
Joe.