gluing prefinished plywood

[charlie kapper]

what glue do you use to glue prefinished plywood? I know I can sand the areas to be glued but I would prefer not having to.

[Peter Quinn]

Urethane like gorilla glue makes a tenacious bond, but a heck of a mess in visable areas. Tite bond 3 has a little strength, not so much that I trust it. Most prefin is UV cure or post-cat conversion varnish, it's made for things to NOT stick to it, so if you don't want to sand you are taking your chances. Could try melamine glue in a test? Under what circumstances are you gluing prefin? I've glued boxes side to side with gorilla glue, skuffed it quick with 80g, couldn't break it with a hammer. But cleaning all the squeeze if gluing cabs together from interiors would not be fun.

[Jim Becker]

Charlie, I would personally mask off the glue line, scuff the area and then glue using polyurethane glue if not scuffed to bare wood or TB-III if scuffed to bare wood. I would keep the masking in place to keep any squeeze out under control. I know it's a pain to do this kind of preparation, but the end result will likely be better...and stronger.

[Larry Fox]

Why do you need to glue it? Having that information might be helpful. I am sure you have thought of this but is a mechanical bond at all feasible. I have honestly never glued prefinished ply on the finished surface because I always just assumed it wouldn't hold. TiteBond that has gotten onto it has been easily scraped off so I know that won't work. As others hacve accurately pointed out, Gorilla glue is a MESS and that might not work either. Maybe a construction adhesive but that is also a mess and very thick and likely not suitable for your purposes.

[Bradley Gray]

My first choice would also be a mechanical fastener. If it has to be glue cut dados - this will help to contain the glue and speed assembly. Faster in the long run.

[Mark Wooden]

Use a few bisquits.

[Ken Krawford]

I use a cabinet scraper in this situation. Most of the time I'm only gluing the edge of the ply into a dado so I con't need to scrape very much off. I clamp a small wood block on the scraper to act as a fence to keep the scraped area uniform.