Finally about to begin building my kitchen after months of planning and acquiring materials.
Suffering a bit of analysis paralysis about the plywood edges.
Using 3/4" pre-finished maple plywood for the boxes.. Base cabinetry is going to be almost exclusively pull-outs.. Basically trying to decide if I should use the pre-finished/pre-glued edge banding veneer, or if I should slice up solid maple into 1/8" strips for all exposed edges. Clearly solid would hold up to wear and tear better, but I wonder how much wear edges get if all the storage is pull outs (the drawer boxes themselves will be solid maple with plywood bottoms)
Also need to consider what's the process for finishing the 1/8" solid strips (if I go that way) given that the boxes themselves will already be finished (factory pre-finished)... Also solid edge banding will be more visible.
02-07-2022, 11:00 AM (This post was last modified: 02-07-2022, 11:18 AM by rwe2156.)
I've used hot melt glue on banding quite a bit my kitchen. Its now about 20 years old, and what I've noticed:
1. A couple places where the banding has come loose. One caused by dragging bags of flour etc over it (mainly uppers). The other the bottom of the sink base. Easy to re=glue.
2. One place the banding is crinkled. I don't know why. Not water b/c its an upper.
Edge banding is so attractive b/c of the time savings. But solid wood edging, while better, also introduces the issue of flush trimming & as you know, on plywood that introduces a real chance for a screw up. But - if painted no big deal, and if not end end cabinet, no big deal.
Festool has a very nifty attachment that simulates a lipping planer, but I think you could DIY one pretty easy.
Another way is a flush trim fence on either your router table or table saw. But standing a 30 something inch high panel up on end isn't very attractive.
When we did the remodel we converted all the pullouts to drawers. Pullouts are pretty much passe. You have to build a drawer anyway, just attach a front and be done with it.
I don't have pullouts but on the edges of 3/4" prefinished ply shelves I added 1/4" thick maple with the outer edges eased at a 45° angle . I just used a brush to finish. I just don't like a edge of veneer or laminate applied last where something can be dragged across it and tear or break it. Roly
I used the 1/8" maple strips for the durability. For the finish, I don't recall the prefinished ply being that hard to match, it didn't appear to be stained so (IIRC) an oil varnish was a close match. But wouldn't you have the same finish question if you used the veneer edging?
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
Make sure to your plywood cuts are clean and that you join the bottoms flush with the sides. Use solid wood strips with yellow glue and headless micro pins to hold it.
I've probably used a couple of thousand feet of hot melt edge banding on both plywood and Melamine. Very few failures and they were always an easy fix. My kitchen is now 30 years old with no failures of the Melamine edge banding.
If you can buy prefinished edge banding and have the means to apply it w/o damaging the finish that would be the way to go. Otherwise, I would use the unfinished version and finish it with WB clearcoat. In any case, hot melt edge banding will save you hours and hours of work over solid wood, and likely look better, too, because you won't see an obvious edge.
I think for any actual shelves where things (like big bags of flour, which we have!) will be dragged, I will do solid wood for sure. Was thinking more about all the box edges behind drawer fronts where the edge itself shouldn't be subject to much abuse.
Finishing, you can get pre-finished veneer tape, but yes, that's part of the question, what finish for any unfinished edging where the panel is already factory pre-finished.. Quick shot of poly is probably fine I think.
John mentioned "have the means to apply it w/o damaging the finish" in reference to the prefinished tape, what are the means to avoid damaging it? Just a paper bag (etc.) between the iron and banding?
I think for any actual shelves where things (like big bags of flour, which we have!) will be dragged, I will do solid wood for sure. Was thinking more about all the box edges behind drawer fronts where the edge itself shouldn't be subject to much abuse.
Finishing, you can get pre-finished veneer tape, but yes, that's part of the question, what finish for any unfinished edging where the panel is already factory pre-finished.. Quick shot of poly is probably fine I think.
John mentioned "have the means to apply it w/o damaging the finish" in reference to the prefinished tape, what are the means to avoid damaging it? Just a paper bag (etc.) between the iron and banding?
The one I was thinking of uses a hot air gun to heat the glue, an edge bander.
I built several bookcase pieces using oak ply. I routed bullnosed trim(cut from 4/4 or 3/4" dimensional oak boards) to use as edge banding. I ran the boards on the router table on each edge and ripped the trim to thickness on a TS. On one piece, I left about 1/4" to give the trim some depth and used a flush cut bit in the routed to finish. Others I ripped close to simply sanding the excess even---since the trim was a bit wider than the oak ply.
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