Glueing timber slab to melamine particle board

[DrRob]

Hi all. I haven't visited here for several years, but I'm looking for some advice.

I have a whole lot of 200-300mm timber slabs which I want to flatten off for furniture use. A cabinet maker told me once that he uses his thicknesser, and glues the slabs to a narrow sheet of melamine particle board (using wedges) to keep one side flat. I have used this technique successfully with shorter slabs using a hot glue gun.

However, I am now trying to flatten off some 1600mm long slabs and the hot glue goes hard before I can get both ends of the slab glued. :-(

Can anyone suggest a glue which sets quickly but non-permanently, and which is easy to un-bond. It also needs to stick to fairly rough slabs and not rip out the grain on the slab when separated.

Hopefully...
Rob

[Bohdan]

Have you tried long open time hot glues which can be adjusted for up to 3 mins.

[Beardy]

Maybe you could try putting little pieces of glue stick in the required places and set it with a heat gun

[Bushmiller]

Rob

I like the particle board idea for the reference surface but I don't think I would go any thinner than the fairly standard 16mm. The issue is that you want to be able to recover both the slab and the melamine for further use. Bohdan's suggestion sounds good: Just have all your materials (wedges) positioned ready to go before applying glue. Something else to try may be contact cement (Selleys Kwik Grip to quote one brand) glued to one surface only and pressed together within five minutes, say. A permanent bond is only achieved by coating both surfaces and allowing them to go tack dry before joining.

Try it first of course and only use minimal dabs of glue. The other possibility is to "trap" your slabs on the melamine by a strip of melamine fixed at both ends. You could even leave a gap between the stops and the slabs and then use folding wedges to bring the boards up tight. This may also save trimming the slabs if they are a similar length, but it will be easier if the ends are square to each other. once you have the top surface flat you can flip the slab to thickness as normal.

Regards
Paul

[mpot]

Double-sided carpet tape is another option, and it avoids the hot glue issues you're currently experiencing.

Avoid thick double-sided tape, as that will compress, and won't necessarily give you an even thickness. Carpet tape is thinner, and I have used it numerous times for attaching timber to melamine to put through the thicknesser.

[DrRob]

Have you tried long open time hot glues which can be adjusted for up to 3 mins.

Thanks. Good idea. I'll see if I can source something like this in WA.

[DrRob]

Beardy gave me a clue. I was trying to glue the slabs in the middle, and this didn't work. I realised I could use the glue gun to squeeze glue in at the sides, and use chunks of glue gun glue and the heat gun for larger gaps - next to the wedges.

It worked quite well. The glue joint actually came loose on its own on both slabs I was working with this afternoon just as I was finished thicknessing.

I'm not sure about the contact cement - the slabs are pretty rough and uneven.
Rob

[rod1949]

So what you are saying is that you have some timber that is 1600mm long and vary width between 200mm to 300mm. I would just call them boards not slabs. Seems what you want to do is just a whole lot of work and stuffing around when they could quite easily and quickly faced on a surface planner/buzzer.

[DrRob]

So what you are saying is that you have some timber that is 1600mm long and vary width between 200mm to 300mm. I would just call them boards not slabs. Seems what you want to do is just a whole lot of work and stuffing around when they could quite easily and quickly faced on a surface planner/buzzer.

I'm OK to call them boards - I didn't think of that word. In any case they are slices cut from a tree with bark still on them. ) They've been seasoning for 20 years.

If I had a surface planer/ buzzer, I'd use it! But I don't. I'm retired so I have time to 'stuff around', but not so much spare cash. \

[rod1949]

What is the timber? Are they clean? How many do you want faced?

[DrRob]

What is the timber? Are they clean? How many do you want faced?

This job is jarrah. I've got 8 or so still to do. I've also got a whole heap of tuart slabs/ boards. A future project is to use these for a a timber staircase.

[rod1949]

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