Thread: Need advice for glueing wood panel from bunnings

Originally Posted by Stanislaus

We have a kitchen island table and I would like to increase the work surface area.
I have purchased an unoiled 1200mm x 600mm x 18mm panel that I will cut in half and glue together two achieve a 600mm X 600mm X 36mm panel.
My question is, to avoid cupping do I glue bottom face to bottom face along the grain or glue the grain at right angles to each other?
The intention is to fasten the new panel with piano hinge to the small island bench to make a drop leaf and support it with a gate leg.
All folds up when not used.
In anticipation
Stan

Rule of thumb I was taught many decades ago as an apprentice is always odd number of layers or you'll end up with cupping and or warping. Something about the middle layer forcing the outer layers to balance out... At that thickness though, maybe they won't go astray, I can't say, but if it were me, I'd stick to the rule. Seen far too often when the rule wasn't adhered to and the ensuing drama. The halves are already very thick so I'd put a thin layer, 5 or so mm, of something else in between.

Also, it won't work gluing the two halves at 90 degrees to each other. Glue is guaranteed to fail and or one or both surfaces will crack as they try to expand and contract.

Another option is what they do with stone tops to look 40mm. They glue a 20mm edge around it.

Make sure all your metal parts are stainless. They'll be looking pretty manky after a couple years.

You'll want to glue so the grain runs parallel on both panels. You'd do 90° if you're making plywood... 36mm is a bit thick for a plywood layer though

definitely glue in parallel. These laminated panels often have a little bit of cupping, if it doesn't go from a few days storing with free flow of air around it then you want to glue up back to back with the convex faces together and clamp around the perimeter so the middle is squeezed together. But if you have some nice size cauls that isn't so important, though it's best to glue with cups in opposition.

Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

Another option is what they do with stone tops to look 40mm. They glue a 20mm edge around it.

Sounds like the simplest and safest option.

A word of caution before cutting your panel. It might not be solid timber in the sense that it's one piece of timber right through the thickness.

I've had 'solid timber' doors from Bunnings that I've warned customers before cutting to their requirements that there's a fair chance that, despite the brilliant manufacturing techniques that make it look like solid timber rather than veneer, it'll be veneer and they'd be well advised to get confirmation from Bunnings that it's really solid timber and Bunnings will refund the price if it's not. When I've cut a door it turns out that it is 'solid timber' in the sense that there are blocks of random types and colours of solid timber under the veneer, which is tolerable for painting but useless for staining.

If your panel is the same and you're not painting it, you'll end up with mismatched blocks on the cut end and depending upon where you put the cut end it'll be visible at the bench end while down and visible on the free end when up.