How do you edge prefinished plywood?

[Jamie Buxton]

This issue came up in a recent thread about kitchen cabinets, but I thought it deserved a thread of its own.

Prefinished ply is great for making cabinets. However, there's the issue of the edges. If you use the same prefinished for shelves, what's your technique for dealing with the exposed edge?

[Bill Huber]

If it is a cabinet I just use edge banding, if it is a bookshelf or something like that I will and a strip of real wood about 1/4 to 3/8 in. along the front.

The edge banding is so easy and I have an iron that I bought just for that, it was a $10 one at the Goodwell store. Then with the little $3 edge trimmer it really makes for a fast edge.

[David Werkheiser]

Pre finished edgebanding, Fast Cap has it in any number of finishes. After you trim it, lightly sand, burnish (to ease edges) and wipe edges with paste wax. I haven't had any complaints yet. I know its not quite as good as a sprayed finish, but the job had budget constraints

[frank shic]

the fastcap fastedge is AWESOME: no need to use either an iron or heat edgebander, the bond is terrific and PVC is MUCH TOUGHER than woodtape. the only downside is that the trimmings are STICKY as anything and easily get stuck to your shoes and there's more glue residue to clean off afterwards. the 250 foot rolls come in a special container that actually has a display which tells you how many feet are remaining! i hope that they have more colors available in the future. i only see hardrock maple, oak and white right now.

[Mike Spanbauer]

It's available in many more colors Frank, but it's a pain to find a distributor who stocks them. I agree it's GREAT stuff. Their little edge roller is pretty nice also. It's a silly simple tool (looks like a turtle with 2 steel rods underneath) but dang it works well and ensures I apply sufficient force to get a great bond. No more iron for me.

mike

[frank shic]

Don't forget about the end cutter - a little pricier than the edge cutter, but well worth it!

[Larry Fox]

Pre-finished edge banding here as well. I bought a little took at Woodcraft for trimming it. For the ends, I use a pair of scisors and trim it right before I iron the last inch or so down. Works like a charm.

[Jamie Buxton]

So you guys who are edge-taping with wood -- are you finding prefinished wood tape? I've just done a quick zoom around the web looking for Fastedge in prefinished wood, and haven't seen much. I see PVC, and I see unfinished wood.

[Chris McDowell]

Unless the customer is limited on budget,I use a piece of hardwood 3\4" X 1 1\2" and I run a rabbet 1\4" deep by the width of the plywood. Glue and nail in on. Then I run it over a roundover bit on both edges on the router table to dress it up. Makes it look a lot classier and the rabbet on the front piece of hardwood helps to support the shelf and prevent sagging. Sometimes I use a Roman ogee bit, just depends.

[Jamie Buxton]

You folks who are offering suggestions for putting unfinished edging on the plywood, what do you do next? I am asking about techniques for edging prefinished plywood. So now you've put unfinished edging on the prefinished plywood. How do you finish the edging?

[frank shic]

jamie, you would stack them together and align the edges as close as possible and then spray them.

[Mike Spanbauer]

Jamie,

Fastcap sells both unfinished AND Prefinished versions of the adhesive edging. Sorry, I believe all of us providing comments on the system assumed you knew what we were talking about.

I believe there are a 1/2 dozen or so prefinished fastedge products, I personally use prefin maple sheet goods and the hardrock maple edging is close enough for me.

No finishing of edges required at all :)

Cheers,

Mike

[Chris McDowell]

Jamie I am very aware of what you are talking about. All I make my cabinets out of is prefinished plywood. Sometimes I just lay a piece of cardboard on top of the shelf and spray, other times I stack them like Frank suggested, and I have just turned the gun down and sprayed. It's not very difficult to come up with a solution.

Best of luck,
Chris

[Doug Shepard]

This would take more work than just using tape, but could you cut strips of the pre-finished ply then cut 45's on each edge and a V-notch in the shelf edge then glue the strip in? I'm thinking along the same lines as the way some folks use V-shaped hardwood edging. This would give you an exact match to the shelf color/finish though.

[frank shic]

doug, that's an interesting idea. you could also just rip a 1" piece, turn it on its side and then rip the prefinished edge VERY CAREFULLY off and glue that to the edge. i'll stick with the prefinished PVC fastedge tape!

[James Biddle]

I used wipe-on poly to finish the banded shelf edges on the last prefinished plywood project. I'll have to look into the prefinished banding though. I'm assuming it only comes in stick-on, right?

[Mike Spanbauer]

As far as I'm aware, that is correct Jamie (I've only purchased it in stick on before). Comes in 50 and 250' rolls like the unfinished, just for a bit of a premium. however, it saves me hours of work so it's a no brainer...

And, considering my Pre-Fin maple is either B2 or C1, the edging looks as good or slightly better than the plywood itself. Looks nice, wish I had some pics to snap for you though.

mike

[Jeff Raymond]

Cut a rabbet about a quarter inch into the side of the ply and make up some T shaped edge, pre-finish and glue 'er up.

You'll have a better edge than a banded edge.

[Rob Blaustein]

I'm planning to use pre-finished ply for some projects and was wondering the same thing that Jamie was. But I have a few questions for you fastedge users: for pre-finished maple ply would you use a maple colored pvc version or their pre-finished real wood maple version and if you've used both, how do they compare? For 3/4 ply, do you use the 3/4" fastedge and apply very carefully, or do you use 15/16 and trim?
--Rob

[frank shic]

rob, i've never used the unfinished edgebanding but i've got a roll of the PVC maple sitting right next to me and it's 15/16" to allow for trimming on 3/4" material. the color match is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of maple and if someone looks REALLY closely at edges and the plywood material, they will probably be able to tell that it's not a solid slab, but it's close enough for me and i'm glad that it'll be one less thing i have to finish!

[Rob Blaustein]

Frank--thanks for checking on the width. I was just wondering how the PVC compared to their real wood but pre-finished edgeband since you wouldn't have to finish that either. Did you know they had that when you got the pvc stuff and if so, why did you go with that one over the wood?

[Mike Spanbauer]

Hi Rob,

There is only 1 maple color in pre-finished (I'll attempt to attach at the end of this message) and there are 5 PVC maples. You can get a better match with the PVC stuff than w/ the real wood normally. That said, there is no grain on the side and like Frank mentioned, if you've someone with a close eye, they'll catch it.

I'd recommend ordering a pair of the sample wheels that I have from them (wood and pvc) which contain all of their wood sample colors in both pvc and real (including real unfinished and prefinished).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14038466@N03/1429203221/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/14038466@N03/1429203221/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14038466@N03/1430078942/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/14038466@N03/1430078942/

Cheers,

mike

[frank shic]

rob, the PVC is tougher than regular WOOD edgebanding and it's color more closely approximates FINISHED maple. there's also no grain to worry about tearing out when you edgetrim it. the only thing that stinks is that the stuff is EXTREMELY STICKY and the little trimmings that fall off will stick to your shoes!

[Rob Blaustein]

Frank and Mike--thanks for clarifying. That sample wheel sounds like a great idea. Neat company--lots of good products. Just recently got turned onto their 2P-10 CA adhesive (via their starter kit).
--Rob

[frank shic]

rob, that 2p-10 is great stuff just be careful with your fingers!

[Mike Spanbauer]

Lol, that sounds like an experience I'd rather not imitate Frank ;)

I agree with you though, their CA kit is wicked impressive and well priced for the adhesives and quality!

Rob: there are 2 wheels, I'd recommend getting both to keep in your arsenal (they are in the pics linked above, but not showing up for some reason. One says PVC and the other says Wood (lol, original and simple).

mike