Laminating MDF

[Anthony Whitesell]

What adhesive is better to use for laminating two pieces of MDF together? Titebond, contact cement, or something else?

[glenn bradley]

I'll assume plain MDF, not melamine covered or anything, right? I have used TBII (because it was on hand, any good PVA should do) with success many times. Several high use laminations are years old with no problems.

[Bobby Hatfield]

Anthony, I make table top replacements for resturants and laminate two 3/4" lightweight MDF pieces with Elmers or Titebond weighted down with ten feet of railroad track in pieces. I coat both pieces with glue with a 4" wide plastic putty knife before laminating and weighing them down. Allow to cure overnight. Bobby

[Thomas Knapp]

Any glue that works well for you on solid wood should work on MDF. Contact cement would not be the right choice, unless one layer is as thin as veneer or plastic laminate. Yellow glue, white glue, Polyurethane glue (Gorilla glue ), epoxy, or plastic resin glue all should work. Use what works good on wood for you and clamp it properly or weight it down like Bobby does.

[Steven Shelby]

Hmmm...
Never even thought about using Titebond for laminating. Why not? Darned good glue, after all!

I think I saw Norm use Gorilla Glue a couple years ago and decided it was the way to go. Been using it ever since and have had great results. Don't let the dog in the shop when using it though... I don't even wanna talk about how ugly that would be!

[Sam Yerardi]

Anthony,

I made some guitar bending forms out of MDF about 8 years ago with Titebond II and they're still together. I'm sure yellow would work as well.

[Paul Zonneveld]

Anthony,

I have used TBII and III in the past both worked well. I took the extra step to use some 60 grit paper and scratch up the surfaces of the MDF to be bonded. Remove the dust and apply glue. I figured that the scratched up surface would allow for a better bond, but then again it may just be an extra step.

[Steve Jenkins]

Any pva ( titebond regular or II Or III or elmers)will work fine. Apply it with an adhesive roller that you can get at the depot or lowes. You don't want to get too much glue on the surface. puddles won't squeeze out on a big flat surface.You don't need to sand the stuff. Actually with a pva glue a smoother surface will give you a better bond. You only need to rough up the surface if you are using epoxy even then only if it is starting out glass smooth.

[Wayne Cannon]

Ditto. The smooth glue rollers work great for large surfaces (looks like a paint roller, but made from some kind of smooth-surfaced paper-board or plastic).

[Joe Spear]

I disagree about contact cement not being suitable. Two years ago I made the 36" x 27" top for my router table out of two layers of 1/2" MDF, one layer of 1/4" plywood, and a layer of formica on the top and one on the bottom. I used contact cement for all the layers. I used Titebond to glue 1 1/4" x 3/4" purpleheart strips all around the edge. It is holding up pefectly with no sagging or delaminating. With the contact cement, I didn't have to be concerned about how to clamp the assembly while waiting for the glue to set.

[Jesse Cloud]

We use laminated MDF to make forms for bent laminations. They are exposed to a tremendous amount of stress - a 20 inch bend may have 16 to 20 clamps on it, with the wood pushing hard against the form to 'unbend.'

Our process: draw the curve on 1/4 inch mdf, bandsaw, then fair and true. Roughcut a 3/4 piece of mdf in the same shape. Use any pva (probably TB1) to glue together. Screw them together. Without waiting for glue to dry, run a flush trim bit to trim the rough 3/4 to the template shape. Repeat the same glue and screw process with a piece of 3/4 on top and another on the bottom, flush trim, repeat until you have a form as tall as the lam is wide.

We use these forms over and over and plain old pva never disappoints.....

[Brian Dormer]

I've done this with Blue Bull Glue (Elmers answer to Gorilla) - and it worked fine. If I had it to do over, I would use TBII. (TBIII would be overkill as it's "waterproof" - MDF is anything but waterproof - and I believe TBII is stronger)