Thread: Laminating doors

A veneered board manufacture has told me they have had issues doing the solid edging under the veneer. Not sure what the issues were tho. I can't see why there would be problems a 15mm piece of timber shouldn't move much if any.

John, I read an article on doing exactly this some time ago. I believe the author had no problems doing this and as jrock said it is only 15mm so shouldn't move much at all anyway.
Best of luck.
Cheers, Ian

Originally Posted by John Samuel

I am making a desk for my son. I plan to laminate the door with a 1.5mm to 2mm laminate of NG Rosewood over MDF.

I'm thinking about laminating all the way to the edge (frameless), and to raise the drawers and door as seen in the attached pic.
Drawer Detail.jpg

To laminate all the way to the edge and yet raise the drawers and doors I'll need to put a timber frame around the MDF, but under the laminate. This timber frame will need to be about 15mm wide, so the MDF is not exposed when I raise the door. Also, this will give me timber into which to drive the hinge screws.

Am I likely to have any timber movement issues?

Hi John

you shouldn't have any issues with timber movement under the veneer

Remember to balance the veneers on both the front and rear face of the substrate.l

ASlso, be very particular about the corners of the solid timber edging -- mitres look best for what you want to do and trimming to final size AFTER applying the veneer is best

Thanks everyone.

I figured I was likely in good shape. Just to make it look pretty was considering using end grain for the top and bottom of the door and long grain for the sides ... that way the grain in the frame will be a better match for the laminates which will have grain running vertically on the door. Using end grain is a tip received from Ian and Wongo some months ago when making a laminated door with a diamond pattern on the face.

I was originally planning to mitre the "under the laminate" frame, but probably will not if I use the above grain orientations. Any thoughts?

Definitely will balance the laminates either side of the door. I am doing this because I got only a small amount of pretty red timber in my order, and laminating allows me to book-leaf this timber for the door. Also, the MDF core means timber movement should be minimal.

Did a test run edge gluing the laminates with Selleys PU glue, and it worked a treat. Because I wet the edges first the PU glue went off very quickly. I had the 400mm wide 3mm thick test piece through the sander 20 minutes after gluing. It finished at 2.6mm. So, I need to sand off a bit more after lamination to stay below a finished size of 2mm.

Will be laminating in a vacuum press, so the frame will be cut initially to about 20mm, and then trimmed to size (as Ian suggested) after the laminates are on.

Has anyone ever used PU glue for laminating? The Selleys product I am using is great for greasy/oily timbers and for when I need the glue to go off more quickly (especially in cold weather), but for laminating longer open times are necessary. Is there another PU glue out there with significantly longer open times?

Hi John

you certainly have a habit of taking on challenges !

Personally I'd be looking at frame and panel doors -- the frame could be a different species, or from pieces of NG Rosewood that are not as striking as what you intend for the panel.
also because you are using veneers, you could edge the doors with a contrasting species.

Originally Posted by ian

Personally I'd be looking at frame and panel doors -- the frame could be a different species, or from pieces of NG Rosewood that are not as striking as what you intend for the panel.

We are back to the drawing board. I cut the veneers this morning. When I laid them out they were not as pretty as I had hoped. Might make a frame and panel door ... might try cutting veneers from another piece ... dunno ... some cogitation time is required.

Decided to stop trying to design in advance and to let the wood make the decision. Cut a 145 mm X 21 mm board 700 mm long into four veneers and it soon became obvious that the prettiest result was to bookleaf two veneers and then to add a frame. Used four leaves of veneer the first time to cover the entire door front without a frame and it is too "busy". That one is on the back of the door.

Glued the veneers onto MDF last night ... used my vacuum press for the first time and I love it ... fast ... simple ... nice even pressure across the board. At least for these smaller jobs it beats the living daylights out of cauls and clamps.

Here is the door after a couple of coats of sanding sealer. Not a very good pic, but will take another with a proper camera once the lacquer is on. The lacquer will make the door brighter.
IMAG0362[1].jpg