Attaching Barnwood to Plywood - Glue?

[Brandon Dickson]

Guys

I'm always amazed at everyone's ideas & expertise.

I'm building a live-edge dining table out of 5/4 poplar slabs I bought off a backyard sawyer. The 2 pieces aren't wide enough when put together for a proper dining table. I have a gap that ranges, depending on the curve of the wood, from 0 inches to 8.25 inches. I want to put a barnwood piece down the center. My barnwood is just barely over .5 in thick. So I want to attach it to some 3/4 plywood that I have laying around. It's pretty much the exact right thickness so I don't want to plane it smooth if I can help it.

Any tips on gluing the rough barnwood to the plywood?

Thanks!

Brandon

[Jamie Buxton]

I'd use construction adhesive -- y'know, Liquid Nails and the like. It will adhere to a rough surface, which is what your barnwood will have. If you buy the right one, it will have a little give to it, so if the barnwood wants to shrink, it can do that.

[Lee Schierer]

Another concern will be edge gluing the plywood to the poplar. Plywood edge glued doesn't make a very strong joint.

Since you are only interested in the top surface of your barn wood, run the back side though a planer or on a jointer to get a smooth surface and use regular wood glue to attach it to your plywood or other better still buy some 3/4" poplar to glue the barn wood to.

[Brandon Dickson]

Good suggestions all! I planned to have a gap between the poplar & barnwood so I wasn't worried about gluing plywood to the poplar. It was still a pain to cut all those curves to match up with the live edge. But it looks pretty cool. When I get a little farther along I'll post a pic.

[Brian Tymchak]

I second Lee's suggestion to use a hardwood backer instead of plywood. Plywood is stable, hardwood is not. IOW, the hardwood will want to move with seasonal humidity changes, the plywood will not. Maybe if the adhesive is flexible, that might provide enough give since the hardwood is only 8" wide. But I would still use a hardwood backer.