Grettings All and Happy Independence Day!
You may recall my recent post about adding breadboard ends to stretch a tabletop, this Q is for the same project… In going through my lumber stash I found a georgeous curly maple board that matches color-wise (raw anyway) to the top, only it’s 3/16 ” too thin.
Being curly maple everything I am dealing with is VERY flatsawn. I am thinking of using epoxy to add a 3/8″ thick layer of maple to the underside of the breadboard board before final milling. My plan for the top was always an underbevel from the roughly 1″ thick top to a 1/2″ thick show edge. The epoxy will not add moisture, the underbevel will move the epoxy line out of sight. The breadboards will be 3-4 inches wide.
Will this blow up in my face?
Replies
I could be wrong, but if you keep the grain going in the same direction you should be OK. I don't think there will be much seasonal movement difference between the two pieces especially at the relatively narrow width of 3-4". I don't think you absolutely need to use epoxy, but it should work fine. Go for it.
epoxy is overkill for that assembly, any white or carpenters glue will suffice.
Hi Gulfstar, Epoxy is certainly overkill in the sense of what's needed to join the parts. What do you think the introduction of water from titebond will do to it? I don't want to wait a month to get to my next round of milling, and I worry a bit about the one-side veneer effect.
There is no introduction of water, all glue joints are made with pva glue and moisture is not a problem. You can leave kiln dried wood in the rain for a day, take it to the shop, plane the wet side and make perfectly good furniture. Your laminated piece will be more stable than if made from a single board, when the glue is dry, after a couple hours, there is no veneer effect especially at these thicknesses.
My only concern is that epoxy has little to no give and won't move in concert with the top and bottom pieces. As long as the seasonal movement across 3-4 inches of curly maple is negligible the veneer should hold. Another option would be to glue strips along the show edges and mill accordingly. The 'hollow' bottom won't show, the glue lines will still be hidden, and you'll hafta adjust the joinery to account for the 3/16' thickness difference.
Use yellow glue. I wouldn't worry about the moisture. Laminate it and clamp flat for a day or two, then install on the table right after.
I've laminate 18" wide by 2' long pieces of 1-1/4" white pine and cherry, and they stayed as flat as . . . a board.
My own experience gives me a different opinion from others. We glued shop made 1/8" curly maple to 3/4" plain maple boards with Titebond. The water in the glue cupped the solid boards, and the composite boards stayed cupped. Pain in the ass! I would only use epoxy for such laminations now.
Thanks all, Lots to think about. Since I was originally leaning epoxy I think I'll go that way. I'm going to make a 3-layer sandwich and resaw it apart later, hopefully that will improve my stability odds and move the glueline inboard a bit.
I'll have almost a foot of extra material, so I'll resaw it and test the TB-Vs- epoxy and report back.
Circling back on the glueup... I used 15-min epoxy, gluing the 3-layer sandwich as planned and all went well. I resawed through the center layer and let it settle before the final milling to get all the parts to final thickness. Everything is flat and happy.
The 8" long test piece with the TB2 was clamped to the workbench between plywood cauls for 24 hrs, came out of the clamps nice and flat, but picked up a wobble over the next day. I'm glad I went with the epoxy.
Thanks for letting us know your results.