Advice on gluing a game board needed

Hello there. Looking for advice in solving a gluing quandary. I'm making a game board similar to those Scrabble boards that hold your tiles in place. I need to glue a top piece of lattice or grid onto a bottom flat piece to make the board (see photos). The wood is Baltic Birch plywood. The top grid is 1/8" thick with 1/16" wide grid lines and the bottom board is 1/8" thick. The issues I'm grappling with are:

1) I need to use a small amount of glue so that it does not run out from underneath the top grid lines onto the bottom piece,
2) I can only really apply glue to the top piece (though I suppose I could trace the grid lines and carefully apply a small amount of glue to the bottom board if needed)

What would be the best glue to use in this situation and the best way to apply it?

Thanks!

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Hi Michael, and welcome to the forum!

My suggestion would be to use a normal PVA like Titebond.

In order to get a thin layer of glue evenly onto the grid I would modify a paint roller by slipping it into a cardboard tube and then putting a single layer of thin cotton cloth (like shirt material) around that. Spread some glue in a plastic tray and roll it back and forth until the cloth cover of the roller is thinly coated then gently roll it over the grid. Quickly flip the grid upside down onto the base and weigh it down. It’s one of those jobs that will take a hour or two to set up for but will take less than a minute to execute! The cotton will hold just enough glue to transfer a thin smear without squeezing out and getting glue on the “sides” of the grid, you might want to have a couple of practice runs to perfect the technique.

What is it for?

Thanks for the tip! Are you thinking I'd glue the cotton to the tube to hold it in place? If so, should that be more of a spray glue so the cotton doesn't absorb too much?

And, it's for a game called Qwirkle. The triangular slots are for additional board pieces so that the playing area can expand in any direction during the game.