Which glue works to bond wood to phenolic faced plywood

[Alan Lightstone]

I need to bond a piece of lumber to the bottom of a sheet of phenolic faced plywood. Typical Woodcraft phenolic plywood sheet.

I see resorcinol mentioned, but don't have any, or a local source. I also know that Titebond makes a Melamine glue that might work, but not sure about that, and don't have any on hand / Woodcraft doesn't stock it.

What I have on hand is:

West Systems epoxy
Titebond I, II, and III
Better Bond Cold Press Veneer Adhesive
Unibond 800 Urea-Formaldehyde Glue
Better Bond Pre-catalyzed powdered resin glue

And whatever the BORGs have in stock.

Will any of these work, or will I have to make a thin dado in the edge of the sheet and glue wood to wood. I'd rather not, as it's a large sheet and I have maneuvering large sheets on the table saw or router table.

[John TenEyck]

As far as glues go, epoxy, the Unibond 800, and the powdered resin glue all should work fine. Just scuff sand the phenolic layer where you plan to glue it. But keep in mind that the plywood ain't going to expand/contract but the solid wood will. As long as your solid wood piece is only a few inches wide or no more than 1/8" thick all should be well. But if it's something like 3/4" thick and 10 inches wide I would be concerned about it bending or the glue breaking loose over time.

John

[Alan Lightstone]

Would 3" wide by 3" thick by 24"long be OK?

I'll need to have it support about 20# through two bolts - perpendicular to the glue line.

Alternatively, I could glue up 3" x 3" thick plywood, but the bolts would have to go through the endgrain. Not sure how strong that would be, or am I over-thinking that in choosing solid wood for the piece.

[John TenEyck]

I think you'll be fine if the piece is only 3" wide. I also think plywood would be fine; only half the plies are end grain.

John

[Alan Schaffter]

I depends on how stresses will be applied. But Epoxy is a phenolic resin so if you rough up the phenolic ply it should give you the best bond. I'm not sure how the "phenolic" ply is made whether it is coated with epoxy or some other form of phenolic like melamine, but for years phenolic sheet was made from layers of epoxy saturated linen or paper cured with heat while under extreme pressure.

[Alan Lightstone]

Thanks. I'll use the epoxy. Easier to mix up.

I did go ahead and make up some quick plywood pieces, and glued them up last night. I'll rough up the phenolic and epoxy the plywood on.

[Alan Schaffter]

Thanks. I'll use the epoxy. Easier to mix up.

I did go ahead and make up some quick plywood pieces, and glued them up last night. I'll rough up the phenolic and epoxy the plywood on.

I have one concern with what you are doing- the bond between the phenolic surfaced ply will likely be stronger than the bond between individual plies of plywood. So depending on the stresses involved it could delaminate elsewhere in the ply layers.

Will the two bolts go completely through all layers of ply (or wood) and through the phenolic ply and have nuts on them or are you using lag bolts that will only be theaded part way into the sandwhich? I guess I really don't understand what you are trying to do and what the end result will look like. Do you have any drawings?

[Alan Lightstone]

I have one concern with what you are doing- the bond between the phenolic surfaced ply will likely be stronger than the bond between individual plies of plywood. So depending on the stresses involved it could delaminate elsewhere in the ply layers.

Will the two bolts go completely through all layers of ply (or wood) and through the phenolic ply and have nuts on them or are you using lag bolts that will only be theaded part way into the sandwhich? I guess I really don't understand what you are trying to do and what the end result will look like. Do you have any drawings?

Here's a picture of what I am doing:
265664

The bolt is just laying above the plywood it will be going through. So the bolts will not be going through the piece with the phenolic plywood, just through the end grain of the plywood, and then bolting onto a Driftmaster fence for my Laguna 14SUV bandsaw.

I couldn't stand how the Driftmaster couldn't stay level with the table top on my Laguna, plus I wanted a somewhat larger top for the bandsaw, so I made my own. Now just working on attaching the fence.