Is there an easy way to trim hardwood glued to plywood edges?

[Justin Pfenning]

I'm struggling with edging plywood, and hoping someone can give me some guidance. I have several projects going that use walnut veneered plywood. I glued walnut strips onto the edges so I could hide the plywood edge. I made my walnut strips 1/4" thick and 7/8" wide, so I could trim it flush after gluing it on, then add a small corner radii. My first idea was to trim it with a flush trim router bit, and I struggled to hold the router square on the 3/4" thick plywood. Then I had the idea to sand it flush with my drum sander. This worked a little better than the router, but it wasn't great, because any slight warp in the plywood, and the drum sander sands right through the veneer. Then I made a right angle block to clamp to the panel to help support the router and keep it square while using the flush trim bit. I haven't used this yet, but it seems fiddly to say the least. Is there an easy fool proof way to trim the overhang off the edges and get it as close to flush with the plywood sides?

[Michael W. Clark]

I have had good results by setting up 2 pieces of the plywood together with space in between for the router bit. The 2 pieces can be spaced to support the router trimming each edge but not so far apart it falls between them.

Finish with an ROS careful not to sand the veneer much.

[Warren Lake]

If you want to do it right lipping tool is the one but it costs coin. There are other set ups you can do on a shaper or table saw. Lipping tool once set up is fast and accurate.

[Mike Kees]

Cut the strips narrower. Like about 1/16" at the most wider than your edge and use a card scraper.

[John TenEyck]

Woodsmith magazine had a very useful jig to hold a router parallel to the surface of the sheet goods. I can't find a picture of the one I made at the moment, but I can take one if you are interested. It took an hour or two to make it, but I've had it now for at least 10 years and it works great. Because it's hand held it allows you to climb cut, too, which eliminates tear out.

John

[Tony Joyce]

Table saw cuts close enough to sand.

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[Justin Pfenning]

Michael, fantastic idea on the second piece of plywood spaced out. I’ll give it a try.

Warren, I’ve never heard of a lipping tool, but I’m going to check it out.

Mike, great idea with the card scraper. After getting these strips glued on, I immediately regretted the amount of stock I left. I used rockler bandy clamps to hold the edging in place, and it worked really good. With less overhang material, I think it still would have been fine. I have a couple smaller planes I considered trying to use to flush it up, but I chickened out due to my inexperience.

John, I would love to see a picture or 2 when you have time to snap them.

Thank you to all of you. You have restored my enthusiasm about getting this done.

[Bob Coates]

I'm struggling with edging plywood, and hoping someone can give me some guidance. I have several projects going that use walnut veneered plywood. I glued walnut strips onto the edges so I could hide the plywood edge. I made my walnut strips 1/4" thick and 7/8" wide, so I could trim it flush after gluing it on, then add a small corner radii. My first idea was to trim it with a flush trim router bit, and I struggled to hold the router square on the 3/4" thick plywood. Then I had the idea to sand it flush with my drum sander. This worked a little better than the router, but it wasn't great, because any slight warp in the plywood, and the drum sander sands right through the veneer. Then I made a right angle block to clamp to the panel to help support the router and keep it square while using the flush trim bit. I haven't used this yet, but it seems fiddly to say the least. Is there an easy fool proof way to trim the overhang off the edges and get it as close to flush with the plywood sides?

This is what I did and it worked for me. The others ideas should also work.

[Michael W. Clark]

You can also do it on a router table running the edge banded side down. Use a fence with a rabbet on the bottom that will clear the overhanging edge banding. The fence is set flush with the bearing on a flush trimming bit. A tall fence helps balance wide pieces.

[Doug Garson]

Here's a William Ing video that demonstrates Tony's idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AddH8IgL7wY

[Warren Lake]

There are 20 ways to do that, depends on how much you are doing, a hand plane is fine even but its slow.

go to 6:30. With a lipping planer you just walk down the board and its flush. Decent a size head radius so doesnt break out. There is very little to do to clean up the typical knife marks you get from a thickness planer. I still stroke sand the panel after but there is no material removal as its flush. If you work to a laminate surface you leave a small amount and trim it off with a chisel rather than running the blades over the laminate. Large shops had tool guys who made custom set ups by modifying different brands of machines.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pheAIcaAI_8

[Tony Joyce]

Here's a William Ing video that demonstrates Tony's idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AddH8IgL7wY


Good video! As an after thought, you need a good sharp blade (as mentioned in the video) for this method to work best.

Tony

[Jim Becker]

The trim router is a good way to do this, but you have to make a much larger base to provide the support you need to keep it level as you run it down the edge just a proverbial hair higher than the plywood veneer surface. You will never be able to control it well with the stock size base.You don't use a flush trim bit...you use a normal straight plunge bit since the router is going to rest on the broader surface of the plywood.

[Warren Lake]

williams way falls short with inconsistencies in the straightness of some plywood.

the lipping planer rides on the wood and follows it.

Even so here is his result, besides more clean up from a saw blade compared to the planer hes not even flush on a short board and has cut into the veneer.

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[Richard Coers]

The easiest way is to make the hardwood edging about 3/16" thick. Then any means of flushing it up is extremely easy. Often just a card scraper. If it has a profile on it, I make the edging about 1/8" wider than the profile. Then rout the profile before flushing it up. That way you only have 1/8" to trim to the plywood. When it's flush with the plywood, run the profile cutter around it again.

[John TenEyck]

OK, here are a couple of photos. The key is to make sure the outer edge of the router bit is in the same plane as the shoe that rides on the panel, or just a smidgeon shy.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ACtC-3cRfjF1cWwNwg3c5r9GFBUE7AuhhqzyZsAtt68CUV338PrMPD7 wBEV01kBs-fzyt3HYJ8IMzCuhJgRaZTX-1Boz56k25vQ3I9Er3Voq4zyNPuQux0af4S1tiABSEy7tL_jwVa RbU7lOR8gmZiMzGxY6tg=w353-h626-no?authuser=0

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ACtC-3fjLdIIdjSkgNX_Hn2NuvnE_UyUnS4fyzQ1_8p8KcsKlQsZEkq K_QRM0qrPjcHORPNODHt9EGEtspt7HNEgHxcG7r7-B8ElXokIoJilV1a-qvf4mqqQXmAHm54uvxXTn4B46MmZ_jlOVE-4hnZcIYNumA=w1006-h566-no?authuser=0

John

[ChrisA Edwards]

I use a Festool MFK700EQ for exactly this. A Festool version of John's setup above.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i452/cedwards874/FestoolMFK700.jpg

[Richard Coers]

I also made up a version like John's, but used a laminate trimmer to keep it lightweight.

[Justin Pfenning]

The Lipping planar is awesome! Just when I think I have all the tools I need, I find this. It is expensive, but might be worth it in the long run. I think I'll experiment with a few of these other ideas, and then see how bad I "need" the lipping planar.

[Jim Becker]

Justin, if you're going to be doing a reasonable amount to a lot of this technique, a dedicated tool could be a good investment.

[Ole Anderson]

I trimmed all of the solid wood and iron on edging for my kitchen cabs with a flush trim bit on my router table with a tall fence.

[Cliff Polubinsky]

I just picked up one of these https://www.fastcap.com/product/little-lipper

Look around for someplace besides FastCap to buy it. FastCap's shipping is too high.

Cliff

[ChrisA Edwards]

I just picked up one of these https://www.fastcap.com/product/little-lipper

Look around for someplace besides FastCap to buy it. FastCap's shipping is too high.

Cliff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRu6RxUxrzo

[Doug Dawson]

I just picked up one of these https://www.fastcap.com/product/little-lipper

Look around for someplace besides FastCap to buy it. FastCap's shipping is too high.

Just don’t let it be Amazon! The price on the web site is 38, the price on Amazon is 58. Heh.

[Jim Fox]

Made this little device for my PC690 many moons ago. Adjust router so it just leaves a slight lip, adjust bearing depth so it doesn't go into the plywood, then just run it over it. Then just a sanding and viola.

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[ChrisA Edwards]

It's cool to see all these well thought out innovations/jigs.

[Bruce King]

Start at 6:10 to see this fence perform flush cuts.
watch it all to see easy taper cuts, tenon making etc.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3pBbKNrkixY&t=533

[roger wiegand]

I just use a hand plane, easier and less scary that a router.

[Brian Tymchak]

I just picked up one of these https://www.fastcap.com/product/little-lipper

That's genious! Thanks for posting.

[Justin Pfenning]

Thank you to everyone who posted. The all the solutions are great. I think I will give the FastCap Lipper a try. I'm really temped by John TenEyck's jig, and the Festool MFK700EQ. My only reservation with the MFK700, is the limited cutting depth. One of my projects in process is a record shelf. I have Sapele veneered plywood with solid Ash to wrap the plywood edges with. My Ash edge wrap is 1.25" x 1.25". The Festool live video I watched last night, said the max depth on the MFK700 was 5/8". Does anyone know if I could use the MFK700 to flush cut 1.25" deep in 2 passes?

[Joe Jensen]

Table saw cuts close enough to sand.

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In my experience today's hardwood veneers are so thin it's impossible to send hardwood edging flush. I vowed to never again use commecial hardwood veneered plywood. Instead I saw my own veneer and vacuum bag it to baltic birch. That ply in the picture looks like from 30 years ago or it's custom.

[Michael Drew]

Depending on the size of the piece I intend to trim, I will generally migrate towards my router table and flush trim bit. I have an Incra jig for cutting DT's on the table, and it's perfect for clamping the piece to, and keeping it 90 deg to the table.

But....after seeing John TenEyck's jig below, I'm totally stealing his idea and making that jig.


OK, here are a couple of photos. The key is to make sure the outer edge of the router bit is in the same plane as the shoe that rides on the panel, or just a smidgeon shy.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ACtC-3cRfjF1cWwNwg3c5r9GFBUE7AuhhqzyZsAtt68CUV338PrMPD7 wBEV01kBs-fzyt3HYJ8IMzCuhJgRaZTX-1Boz56k25vQ3I9Er3Voq4zyNPuQux0af4S1tiABSEy7tL_jwVa RbU7lOR8gmZiMzGxY6tg=w353-h626-no?authuser=0

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ACtC-3fjLdIIdjSkgNX_Hn2NuvnE_UyUnS4fyzQ1_8p8KcsKlQsZEkq K_QRM0qrPjcHORPNODHt9EGEtspt7HNEgHxcG7r7-B8ElXokIoJilV1a-qvf4mqqQXmAHm54uvxXTn4B46MmZ_jlOVE-4hnZcIYNumA=w1006-h566-no?authuser=0

John

[ChrisA Edwards]

The Festool MFK700 is limited.

A guy, Paul (I think) who goes by Half-Inch-Shy on YouTube, did do a video on what to do to modify the MFK base to allow a bit more capacity, but I think it was only to 3/4".

[Brian W Evans]

Thank you to everyone who posted. The all the solutions are great. I think I will give the FastCap Lipper a try. I'm really temped by John TenEyck's jig, and the Festool MFK700EQ. My only reservation with the MFK700, is the limited cutting depth. One of my projects in process is a record shelf. I have Sapele veneered plywood with solid Ash to wrap the plywood edges with. My Ash edge wrap is 1.25" x 1.25". The Festool live video I watched last night, said the max depth on the MFK700 was 5/8". Does anyone know if I could use the MFK700 to flush cut 1.25" deep in 2 passes?

You won't be able to do this with the MFK700EQ. This is the main drawback of the tool, which I really like otherwise. I just had a similar situation where I couldn't use the Festool, so I used a handplane. It went well and was kind of fun. Had the piece not been huge, though, I would have set up my router table to do the job.

[John TenEyck]

You won't be able to do this with the MFK700EQ. This is the main drawback of the tool, which I really like otherwise. I just had a similar situation where I couldn't use the Festool, so I used a handplane. It went well and was kind of fun. Had the piece not been huge, though, I would have set up my router table to do the job.


You just pointed out both advantages of the WoodSmith jig. It can flush fairly wide edging and it works on any size workpiece. I've used the one I built to flush edging at least 1-1/4" wide. If I were doing stuff that wide regularly I would design the jig for a 3/4" or 1" diameter piloted router bit. Normally, I'm just trimming 1/4" or thinner edging and for that the 1/2" bit works fine.

John

[Ray Newman]

Use a flush trim bit and a shop-fabricated router table jig -- see below video – to easily trim plyw’d edging.

My shop experience is that rather than balancing a hand-held router jig to trim the edging, it is easier to trim the edging on the router table with its dust control and a high fence to support the stock.

Before applying the glue and the banding, apply painters tape to both side of the plyw’d to catch any glue squeeze out. I also have a dedicated flush trim bit that is only for edge trimming.

https://www.wwgoa.com/video/trimming-edge-banding-on-the-router-table-000340/#

[Thomas McCurnin]

That’s a nice jig! Thanks. I’ll have to save a picture, but a small trim router would be perfect.

I clamped a double piece of scrap to the veneered plywood to allow the router to have some bearing and covered the edge of the veneered plywood with several pieces of masking tape so the bearing would be slightly proud of the edge and I wouldn’t chew into the delicate veneer at the edge.

I have also used a simple bench plane to trim the edging, again using several pieces of masking tape to protect the delicate veneer.

[Tony Joyce]

That ply in the picture looks like from 30 years ago or it's custom.

I hadn't thought about it til I saw your post, but you're probably right about the age of that plywood.
It may be over thirty years old. This was seconds or culls from a company that made plywood for Hatteras Yacht.
My dad used to buy a truck load at the time. We had an 18' flat bed at that time. I sorted it as I unloaded it and kept the best for myself.
I've got Mahogany, Teak, Afromosia and odd pieces of other species. Lots of 1/4" & 1/2" with other thicknesses from 1/8" to 1".
Good times. Anyway it makes nice shop cabinets.

As side note I have a 40 X 80 building lined with 1/2" teak, ain't that a hoot. It was cheaper at that time than buying liner.

Thanks for reminding me about this.

Tony

[Curt Putnam]

I have a PC trim router baseplate that has two levels. The lower level sits on your workpiece for control and the upper, cantilevered level sits high enough for the router bit to clear the wood. I have what looks like a spoilboard bit set to the width of a business card above the reference surface. Works a treat but it took me over an hour to get the bit height exactly correct Hasn't been changed in the last 5+ years) bit it is noisy and dusty.

The other method I've used is a fenced rabbet block plane, although a regular block can be used. This method is faster to set up (unless you have a router jig ready to plug in & go) and gets the job done quickly and quietly. Since you can remove material at as little as .001" per pass, the block plane method can be more accurate.

IMO & YMWV