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Hey all, thought I would ask you masters of laminate about this trick or method of seam security.
Have you ever or heard of using carpenter’s glue on seams to prevent seams from opening up, say 1 ” wide each side? One of my allies did a huge lam job and the seams have opened up on many of the vertical surfaces. Acclimated, 2 coats per surface and on MDF and still they opened as much as 1/16th. We did some lam work in the same space and out of the same material but only experience a little shrinkage. The location is in a bank with an air handling system, am I wrong assuming the sheets dried and shrunk due to humidity differentials between the bank and our shops?
I glued a sample down to a piece of high density partical board and to my amazment it held well!disscuss, please
David,
If you’re going to do this, you should glue at least 2″, instead of one. Use masking tape to protect the seam area then pull it before applying the PvaC, or etc.The number one rule, however, is to acclimate the wood and laminate to each other for at least 24 hours. That fairly balances the moisture constant. Other than smooth surface, particle board and MDF are good to laminate to because the coefficient of expansion is closer than with plywood, so keep that in mind as well.
The two biggest dangers with rigid gluing the seams while contact cementing the field, is A: the possibility of warping, and B: the possibility of ripping a dry or brittle sheet apart. I have seen some color core tops rip apart wide enough to roll a nickel down on edge. Not seams – actual rips in the top. Contact cement is a neoprene based glue (I think), and allowed movement. It conflicted with the rigid glued edges and seams on the color core tops. We always rigid glued the whole deck and never had an issue.
Assuming the seams are board to board, rather than two pieces of laminate over one substrate board, if you backer sheet the back, it may help as well.
Tom, what was the product Formica came out with about 20 year ago, same material used for bumpers on cars? That product required the edge and joints be a rigid glue line? Damn it’s a B**ch getting old, can’t remember S**t anymore !
Posted By Wags on 04 Apr 2012 09:27 PM
Tom, what was the product Formica came out with about 20 year ago, same material used for bumpers on cars? That product required the edge and joints be a rigid glue line? Damn it’s a B**ch getting old, can’t remember S**t anymore !Wags, I think the product you remember was called Nuvell.
Yep, Nuvel. Soft as you-know-what. It thermoformed like a dream.
I’ll tell you this, we made some sweet workbench tops out of that material. It was great for not scratching laminate (heh).
I still have a sheet or two for when I set up my next home shop.
Yep Steve that was it.. it also attracted dirt like a magnet…geesh…now I’m gonna have nightmares remembering some of those jobs !
Dang, now im remembering 2000X and the original fountainhead which you couldn’t look at without scratching or cracking…….man the industry has come a long way…or at least I hope it has !
I still have a 2000X set of samples. All solid colors, originally. It was Quintessa before that.
We used to remove fountainhead bowls from vanity tops by punching them. I’m totally serious. Also, everyone who was used to working with Corian must have broken their first large “L” shaped Avonite top when they flipped it over. The cool thing was, since the particulates broke with a bumpy edge, they glued back together like nothing you’d ever seen before. Almost like a million intersecting nodes. Of course the adhesive was a pain with counting the drips and all.
Guardsman had a go at solid surface for a short time, but i can’t remember the name of that product. OH! Solidex! Good times, good times…
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