What glue to apply thin oak veneer to table edges?

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gizmo1990

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I've sanded and squared off an old table top which is made up of about 6mm oak parquet bonded to a pine base. So it's a kind of plywood affair. To edge the table I'd like to have it appear to be one solid piece of wood so I've got a roll of thin (non pre glued) oak veneer with which to bond to the sides. Does anyone know what sort of glue I should be using to do this? I was going to just use some Bostik evo wood glue but I'm not sure if it's appropriate. Most of the advice I see covering gluing veneers online talks about large area veneering, using vacuum pressing, ironing etc, which doesn't seem appropriate for my case. I just want to veneer the table's edges, via sash clamping

If anyone has any experience of this type of use case or pointers, thickness of glue application, wait time etc, I'd really appreciate some advice.
 
Unless you have a massive number of clamps or something like a vacuum press or the like I'd say any form of water-based glue is out

That being so I'd seriously look around eBay for glue film. This is generally PUR adhesive in film form which can be placed between the edge of the furniture and the edge banding and bonded using a warm iron. In effect it Isvthe iton on glue coaying which your uncoated veneer has (PUR stands for PolyUrethane heat Reactive)

Second approach I'd consider is to use a contact adhesive applied to both surfaces (thin, full coat) and left to set for 20 minutes before bonding the items together. Get Evostik 528 (green/white can) if you can - it creates a far better bond than the red domestic stuff does, but may not be available in smaller packings (used to come in 1 litre cans). Contact adhesive has been used by the trade for small areas since just after WWII and was duscussed in W A Lincoln's standard text on veneering

Both the above techniques I've used out on site doing fit outs because they work. Ideally you need a pressure roller such as a J-roller to get a good bond.

A third method is to make-up some gently curved softwoòd cauls (maybe 2 to 3mm curve over 1.2 metres) and use a D4 wood adhesive like Everbuild D4 wood glue, which is fast setting (30 to 60 minutes in reality) but wipes off/cleans up with water and a rag in the first 5 to 10 minutes of clamping ifvyou do get squeeze out

When I was taught we were still using hot hide glue.... but you can to the clamp and caul approach (method 3) using Elmers Cold Hide Glue. Sets a bit slower (overnight), but at least if you make a mistake the glue can be undone with a hot iron (the D4 and contact adhesive are permanent and not reversible). Only used the Elmers stuff a couple of times (just looked: seems to be sold as Titebond nowadays)
 
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Thanks a lot for the reply @JobAndKnock Would this listing for film glue be appropriate? It doesn't specifically state PUR so I'm wondering if it's just normal hot melt style glue! Does it have the proper structural strength?
www.ebay.co.uk

Iron on Glue Film Adhesive sheet, Hot melt Wood Veneer glue, Marquetry, Crafts | eBay

730mm wide x 1mt long = 0.73 sq mt (28¾˝ wide x 39¼˝ long = 7.86 sq ft). For use with your own surfacing material. Have you been looking for iron-on wood veneer. When cold, remove the backing paper from the glue film, the surface is now ready to accept the material of choice, ie wood veneer...
www.ebay.co.uk

I think that method would be my most preferred. It's just getting hold of the glue sheet itself. Do J-rollers have to be made of silicon? Could an old wallpaper seam roller made from wood do the job?

Using cauls would be another good solution. Do you know if D4 glue is that much different to D3 glue? Does it have better adhesive properties? From what I can make out D4 is more for exterior work, so just more waterproof?
 
gizmo1990 said:
Thanks a lot for the reply @JobAndKnock Would this listing for film glue be appropriate?
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It looks right. That type of adhesive is made for trade use (I've used it veneer with a heated platen press before now - a few decades past). It beats trying to cost large areas consistently with a liquid glue - much less messy. I'm not surecthat structural strength is much of an issue when applying a 0.7mm veneer
gizmo1990 said:
Do J-rollers have to be made of silicon? Could an old wallpaper seam roller made from wood do the job?
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AFAIK J-rollers normally have rollers made from either PU or silicone rubber. Thinking about it, a hard wallpaper seam roller with wood or white nylon/plastic roller would do the job. All you are trying to do is take the glue joint down to nearly invisible. For curved surfaces I often used to use a large diameter screwdriver shaft, which should also suffice for small jobs - preferably chrome plated, but either way scrupulously clean and highly polished (so not a bent, rusty old screwdriver)

gizmo1990 said:
Using cauls would be another good solution. Do you know if D4 glue is that much different to D3 glue? Does it have better adhesive properties? From what I can make out D4 is more for exterior work, so just more waterproof?
Click to expand...
I have moved away from Evostik Resin W (green and blue) in recent years. Not only is the Everbuild truly waterproof (BTW available from Toolstation), but it also cleans up with water/damp rag in the first 10 minutes or so (unlike foaming PU glues such as Gorilla - but as I say you do need to be quick) and it sets fast. The fact that D4 is fully waterproof makes it better for exterior work (and general site work) than D3, but the biggest advantage/disadvantage is that it sets quickly
 
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I don't know. I have never felt the need to use Titebond (on cost grounds alone), so unfortunately I can't advise about it. There are those who rave about its open time and the colour of the glue line, but you tend to become more familiar with readily available materials and glue line colour is easy to modify, if needs be by adding compounds such as analine dyestuffs, etc
 
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