Thread: Joining MDF

Biscuits
I'm hungry

Cheers
Michael

Peter

Before joining you need to make sure that the edges are perfectly straight. If not use a known straight edge (I use a thick aluminium angle) as a fence and run a router with a straight bit down the edge(s) only taking off the smallest amount to make the edge straight.

Then biscuit and glue the two pieces together.

I built our kitchen cupboards from the ground up and used pocket hole joinery, on the outside so it is not seen when in place.
Plugs can be used to conceal the holes too.

Gidday Peter

I'd go biscuits too..............The trick to making the join seemless is to joint the edges either with jointer or router & try to match the flow of the grain of your veneers where the jointed area is.

...........this helps disguise the line of the join which the human eyes is particularly good at detecting along the horizontal or vertical. Matching the grain of your veneers particularly around this area where possible will help disguise the join!

MDF is like a sponge when it comes to glue so use pleanty and let it soak in for a minute or to so you can builld a decent amount up for a good bond.

It might seem like overkill but for a critical glue up thats a feature I'd seriously consider using a combination of biscuits & pocketholes:eek:

Theres nothing like the mechanical strength of pocketholes in combination with the bond of well prepped biscuit joinery fast efficient strong!!!

Regards Lou

Thanks fellas I appreciate the input,
Lou I was thinking biscuits as well, this is a butt joint so I don't think there is a way for pocket holes (unless you can tell me different). How would you suggest setting up to use a router, am thinking as Matt suggested just have to find a 2400mm straight edge the veneer is a very straight grain (pretty bland really) so should be easy enough Do I rout them both together if so any suggestions on keeping them tight and square to each other during the process??

Thanks Peter

Hey Peter

You can definately use pocket hole joinery to do Butt joints. Heres a few examples from the Kreg Website:

http://www.kregtool.com/education_ce...#cabinetFrames

David Marks from 'Woodworks' does a lot of work with Veneers and heres his method in action....................I often copy his techniques myself!!!

http://www.diynet.com/diy/ww_beds_fu...277738,00.html

REgards Lou

Thanks Lou,
Will check them out
Peter

Hi Peter,
Biscuits + pocket holes.
In the past when I have had to join sheets I have had success by aligning the edges etc and placing the sheets almost together and clamping them down firmly - place a straight edge on one of them so that a router bit can pass along and trim a slight amount off each sheet - any slight error etc in one is mirrored in the other so they will still fit together perfectly. It takes a little setting up the first time but once you've tried it - I find it great.
Regards,
Bob

Peter, edging joining MDF is one of the trickiest things to do in a workshop. Because the veneer is around 0.5mm you need a biscuit jointer that is spot on in accuracy. If not, a slight ridge will be sanded through. If you are willing to add a decoritive solid strip, that will make life so much easier and it will also look the part. Glue a 5mm solid strip to each edge and when dry carefully plain/sand so its 1mm proud each side and then glue them together and plain/sand flush. A decorative strip will look beter than a missaligned and probably sanded through MDF join