Prefinished plywood - how to finish the edge ...

[Michael Wildt]

Thinking of building a 'learning tower' for my son so he can reach the counter top. It's basically a tall box with 4 sides where the inside platform can be moved to different heights. I did consider making a large step stool but since he has ants in the pants having a tower may be better.

Material I'm considering would be pre-finished ply. I'll round the edges and that's where I'm looking for recommendations. The coating is described as acrylic, but since I've never used such ply before I wonder if there is recommendation on how to finish the routed edges ? Should one get some wipe on poly or do edge banding exist for rounded edges ?

Thanks

[Jamie Buxton]

The most-common edge treatment for pre-finished ply is vinyl veneer tape. You can break the edge slightly so it isn't a knife edge, but it probably isn't the roundover you want. If you want a real roundover, you'll need to use wood. Glue on a thick (maybe 3/8") edgeband. Rough cut it wide, glue it on, and use a bottom-bearing flush-trim bit to trim it flush with the plywood. Then use a roundover bit on the wood. Use a roundover bit whose radius is less than the thickness of the edgebanding. You'll probably need to sand after you roundover, and you don't want to be scratching the pre-finish. Then use multiple coats of wipe-on varnish to finish the wood. You can wipe it on the wood, and wipe it off the pre-fin. It might not be a 100% perfect match in sheen, but that's the best you can get.

[Chris Padilla]

Jamie pretty much summed it up for you.

If you're very careful about applying the edge band flush, you might be able to avoid worrying about trimming it flush. A couple ways you can approach this: biscuits, dowels, dominos, splines. These will all aid in strength but you really want them for alignment.

Or, just use regular unfinished plywood. I bet the time/money you save will be about a draw using prefinsihed. It is just easier not having to deal with trying to mate finished and unfinished pieces together.

[Leo Graywacz]

They do have prefinished edgebanding just for that application. But if you are going to round it over it would make it difficult to apply. The plywood edge is pretty ugly, maybe paint it gloss black. It would still be tough to make it look nice. Poly sure would be the easy way out, or lacquer.

[Myk Rian]

I use the same species wood and cut thin strips for edging. No way will I use vinyl.

[Pat Barry]

I've done what Jamie suggested (3/8" piece of wood glued to the edge) and it works great because you can get a decent roundover, which I think you need for a kids use. The glued on edge banding would work fine if there is no wear and tear but thats not the way kids operate.

[Erik Christensen]

I would make it out of un-finished baltic birch. I have used that for a number of drawer boxes and shelves that had a nice roundover and the void free baltic birch edge looks pretty nice when sanded & finished.

It would be less work for me to finish the whole assembly than to edge band and spot finish.

my 2 cents

[Mike Konobeck]

Just finished building some cabinets using prefinished maple. Probably my last time. Not sure yet. I was going to finish them but hired it out because I ran out of time. The finisher said that it is pretty easy to finish the edges but by the time you have the sprayer going it is just as easy to spray the whole thing. You do use less finishing material though and the stuff I bought looked pretty decent. Going to help spray tomorrow so we will see.

As for edges I would use solid wood as mentioned. I did the shelves that way and they turned out nice. Pretty simple. I just was careful on sizing the solid to the thickness of the ply but have used a flush router bit in the past. Here are some router jig options:

http://www.finewoodworking.com/subscription/Materials/MaterialsArticle.aspx?id=3273
http://www.finewoodworking.com/Workshop/WorkshopArticle.aspx?id=3471

I think there was something in the latest Wood magazine or some other popular magazine too. Just need to keep the router perpendicular to the edge or use the technique in the first article. You can always just clamp a block to the side you are not edging if you glue up the wood to the ply with one side flush.

[Michael Wildt]

Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas. Much appreciated.

Solid wood edging was a good suggestion. I had forgotten about that possibility all together. Unfortunately I didn't explain the project in enough details. Some of the edges like the top will have curved sides and rounded edges. Using solid wood on a curved side could be done, but for time reasons I'll probably skip that idea.

I do not mind the ply edge as long as it is with no voids like BB ply. I was planning on checking that at the lumber yard since I've never used prefinished ply before. BB ply was my first choice for this but prefinished maple ply is cheaper and the latter I can get in 4x8 sheet which would work perfect. The goal was to save some time on the finishing ;-) One could use solid wood, but I have limited time for projects of this kind so I'm leaning towards ply. I guess if I had domino that could cut down the time needed instead of mortise-tenon. If prefinished ply contains voids then BB it would be the choice though cost then gets close to the one listed below.

I only have some sketches for the project, but I got the idea from this design and then I've planned some tweaks to it based on other home made designs I've found. http://www.littlepartners.com/


Anyway I'll mull over this a bit more until I know what's available at the lumber yard.

[Pat Barry]

Seeing the littlepartners pictures I would go with the Baltic Birch with roundover of your choice. Finish with clear poly = I'd use Satin Poly - I use MinWax but it seems to get a bad rap around here a lot.

[Peter Quinn]

I have the learning tower in my kitchen so my son can help cook, wife bought it used from ebay. If you are using prefinished maple be prepared to do some fill on the edges. And nothing holds the screws like baltic birch. There is no edge band that is going to follow the bull nose over those radii. Its pretty much just a plywood edge. The actual tower is BB and what looks like a water borne acrylic. If you haven't used a good waterborne finish its worth a try. General finished works great by spray or brush. Enduro var adds a nice amber tone that mimics an oil varnish.

[Michael Wildt]

Turns out pre-finished ply, called the lumber place, is not void free so BB will be the choice. Only problem is that the family wants to speed this up so we may get one faster than I can build it, we'll see.

Appreciate the comments and pointers. Always good to learn something new.