Shop-Made Edge Banding

[Bruce Thompson]

I am making a round top for a metal plant stand that DW likes. The shelf itself will be made of a 12 1/2" diameter circle cut out of a pair of glued-up off-cuts from our pre-finished engineered white oak flooring. The obvious problem is that the edges would show the 1/2" softwood (poplar?) cross-wise backing of the flooring planks and the 1/8" rough-cut bottom ply of soft wood.


I have in mind to cut a 40" strip of the white oak veneer off some flooring scrap, to about 1/16" thickness. A test piece proved that I can uniformly cut it that thin and that the material is limber enough at that thickness to bend readily around a 12 1/2" circle. Steaming or soaking are not options, since the material is factory finished and it would, I suspect, be damaged, so there will remain considerable springiness to the veneer.


The question is how to glue my home-made veneer to the outer diameter of the circle. Most especially how to cut the joining ends for a near invisible seam and to glue those ends so that they will not try to peel off. My thought now is to use Titebond III and to use a roller or maybe just a maple block to press it in place as I work around the circle.


I'm sure someone here must have done something similar and will have good advice for me.

[Thomas McCurnin]

Titebond or Epoxy and a band clamp, or perhaps properly called, a strap clamp.

There was this one time, in band clamp .....

[Brian Tymchak]

Couple of thoughts off the top of my head. Have not done this myself so others might offer better advice.

I would taper the ends of the banding so they overlap about a inch or so. This called a scarf joint. Once the glue has cured some final sanding will bring the end down to flush. On glue up, I would use a band clamp to put even pressure all around. However the trick will be to not glue the band to the edge. Not sure what to do about that. Also, if the core is actually hardwood, 2 sides of the table have end grain and it's difficult to get a good glue bond on end grain. I might use some epoxy to fill the end grain, let it cure, sand smooth. Then glue the edge on using epoxy.

[Jim Becker]

This is likely going to be "not fun" if you are trying to work with prefinished material, both for the bending part and for the blending part afterward. (leveling to surfaces, etc.)

[glenn bradley]

The finish would have to be amazingly flexible to maintain integrity once bent to the radius. Assuming that is not a problem, strap clamp with an extra clamp/block right over the seam with the seam positioned where it is most unlikely to be seen. TB-III is what I use for curved ribbons of full thickness inlay and has been error free under years of heavy use so I think you are OK there.

437386

[Bernie Kopfer]

Doesn’t Titebond’s Quick &Thick claim to have superior end grain adhesion. Also it won’t run all over.