Curved table apron

[Prashun Patel]

I am making a table that requires an elliptical apron. I'm planning on bricklaying the apron to height, then bandsawing and routing to a template, and finally veneering the front.

Can I make the brick layers out of plywood? I'm concerned whether the veneer will hold properly on plywood edges. My instinct is yes, since it's just a big edgebanding exercise, but since it's curved, I'm not sure...

[Jamie Buxton]

There's a lot of plywood cabinets out there with veneer edgebanding. That is, the veneer should stick.

[Chris Hedges]

Overtime, I'd be concerned with the layers of the plywood projecting through the veneer. Unless your using super cheap ply, poplar can't be that much more $.
Chris

[Prashun Patel]

It's not the price; it's the ability to make a seamless layer. Making the angles is a little bit of a pain, and my apron is not that thick (2") so there's not much strength in just 2-3 layers. With plywood, I can just make a few large rings perfectly fit to my template.

It'll actually be more expensive to do it this way vs. poplar, but it just simplifies a lot of things for me.

How about mdf?

[Richard Coers]

You may get some short grain in the plywood layup that may chip out when routing. Then you have to fill it and sand. I vote for soft maple or poplar.

[Prashun Patel]

I've made curved bending forms from plywood. It flush trims fine with zero chipout - at least with the bit I've been using.

[Bruce Kohl]

Why don't you make the curved aprons from bent laminations - thin strips of wood glued together over a form? The bent lamination apron will be more stable, and you can make the final face lamination from the finish wood instead of a veneer. There are plenty of articles out there on how to do bent lamination.

[Peter Quinn]

I think you fine using plywood as long as the veneer is a thick sawn veneer or you use at least a 1/16" backer veneer behind the face. I'd probably be inclined to use an MDf core, skin both faces with very thin bendable plywood, then skin that with veneer. If you already made the elliptical top it will be hard to do a true bent lamination due to spring back being hard to predict, but that would be my preferred solution if possible.

[Prashun Patel]

I actually tried that first. It didn't work out so well. I used bendable poplar plywood. I made it in quarters. The springback - which was very slight - prevented the lower stretchers in the legs from lining up perfectly. Also, there was a lot of stress on the leg/apron joints - which were M&T. To eliminate that stress, I decided to make a bricklaid apron that passes through the legs in a bridle joint. The ellipse has flats to accomodate the legs.

If MDF is strong enough, I might just do that. The veneer will be ash. I'll resaw the veneer myself as 4 quarters the seams of which will be hidden in each leg joint respectively.

[Mel Fulks]

Italian bending ply.It is made of three layers of rotary cut poplar .Seven pieces will give an apron three quarters of an inch thick.You need 8 x4 material.The 4x8 is for column type shapes.Need more info let me know.

[Mel Fulks]

Sounds to me like you used 4 x8 instead of 8x4.Properly glued IBP has no spring back.When the apron is screwed to the table strength should not be a problem.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Depending on how you orient the plywood, I would be concerned about tear-out on the plywood veneer and/or voids in the ply. If you filled / smoothed afterwards (with something like bondo), that should then give you a smooth surface. I have seen similar done, just not with plywood. Regular wood was used (as bricks as you say) and then they were cut on the bandsaw then smoothed.

[Sam Murdoch]

I like the idea of plywood (good void free ply) rather than MDF mostly for the strength and the ability to hold fastenings - though I'm not certain if there will be any mechanical connections in your project. The issue of the plywood telegraphing through the veneer could be overcome - as previously suggested - with a layer of backer veneer, also sand and fill with an easy sand filler (not bondo) will help. IMHO :).

[Peter Quinn]

What are the dimensions of the apron? It seems like with a 2" width if the minor axis is not too severe you might be able to glue it up out of solids and make a template, BS to the line, flush trim, and just veneer the solid stock using an iron method. With one or two layers tthe length of the eclipse, and a few layers of shorts on opposite sides ( some at each end, some in the middle of the opposing side at apex of arc) you could quickly create a very solid apron. There is waste but you could use an inexpensive core like poplar, pine, maybe basswood. There is an old FWW article by Tage Frid about veneering solids, IIR he used a similar method? Been a whole since I read at.