Woodworkers – Edge banding plywood?

I am making a large cupboard out of plywood and now want to hide the edges, but which edge banding to use?

It’s regular hardwood ply from B&Q or Wickes, in 9, 12 & 18mm thicknesses. Edge banding comes as specific woods,  birch beech oak etc. Which colour best matches bog standard hardwood ply from an unspecified tree? It’s going to be varnished so don’t want it to look weird & mismatching afterwards.

Anyone done this and can shed any light?

Or should I DIY it like this:

Which will be a right pain as it’ll need about 11m in total.

`Edging doesnt usually stick well to plywood due to there being endgrain.
Straight grain accepts a good glue bond, but endgrain doesnt.

To hide the edge of ply you need to create the type of joint that enables a solid piece of timber to join with it. or alternatively you can biscuit or domino a piece of solid to the edge. Those are the preferred methods, but a simple iron on veneer isnt going to stay stuck permanently.

EDIT: Images arent loading. yet again something goes wrong with this bloody website.

<img src=”https://www.hvalleytools.com/images/popup/edge-banding-router-bit-sets-with-profile-cuts.jpg&#8221; alt=”” />

User error there dynati. Gotta end on jpeg

I bought about 5 samples and after testing with the tinted osmo oil I used against the project, I picked steamed beech as the best match for the birch hardwood ply I was using (colour and grain). It’s not perfect but I never look at it and think it was the wrong choice.

I got it from veneersonline.co.uk.  Preglued iron on.

Re: comment about end grain above leaves me a bit confused.  If you router the edge and glue in a solid piece of timber, it’s still glueing to the edge of the plys, slightly more surface area but also more bending moment i.e could by snapped off.  Edge banding is designed for this, you are only ever going to use it on plywood (which is opposing edges of end grain and edge/straight grain on all sides anyway) or particle board with no grain.  Mine is admittedly on double width 18mm ply so 36mm wide glued area, but it’s still firmly attached two years later even around the edge of a desk that occasionally gets clonked with an office chair and rubbed with crossed legs.

You’re on a loser with this from the start. The edge will have to be perfectly square and flat. a sawn finish will not be enough, and there should be no voids in the ply  – unlikely if B&Q or wickes are the source.

When you say “edge banding” , do you mean the iron on shit?

I’d be inclined to use some good quality Birch Ply and leave the edges on display. It’s expensive stuff but looks a helluva lot better than cheap hardwood ply, and you may find offcuts from a sawmill. If you’re down south , Wests in Petworth often have 18″ x 4′ offcuts for a few quid, but many other places do too…

Hmm. Bother.

Trouble is, said cupboard is already 90% built, is 2.3m tall by 1.9m wide and is immovable (actually part of the wall).

I’ve now somewhat belatedly decided I don’t like the exposed ply edges after all.

Maybe that method in the video I posted is best after all, as I can use plenty glue instead of just the thin iron on layer. 🤔

  Edge banding is designed for this, you are only ever going to use it on plywood

or the veneered MDF it’s usually supplied to match 🙂

there are far more edge banding timbers supplied than there are plywood substrates, and suppliers of generic far east ply don’t supply a matching banding because they don’t expect users to use it. The expectation (if it’s not a furniture specific ply like birch) is really is the ply will be painted rather than varnished. The face ply is there to be smooth  rather than  decorative which is why there’s not much uniformity of species /grain / colour and the face is so thin you can often see the purple glue through it

I personally quite like the look of raw edge Birch marine ply/Multiplex. Used it lots for various projects in the past as well as the furniture in my van.

I like its honesty.

But then I quite like OSB, too.

Yeah I know B&Q ply is not really furniture grade but as A) the original plan was to probably paint it, B) birch ply is expensive! and C) the face of the (hardwood) ply is actually quite nice, I decided to varnish instead.

PSA for anyone buying ply and wanting to use it with the grain showing:

Wickes put the barcode sticker close to one corner, it usually peels off pretty easily.

B&Q slap a large sticker anywhere within 2′ of the board end and use annoyingly strong glue which makes it virtually impossible to remove nicely. You can’t really varnish/stain the area.

I personally quite like the look of raw edge Birch marine ply/Multiplex. Used it lots for various projects in the past as well as the furniture in my van.

I like its honesty.

Mmm… leaving the edge and making it a ‘feature’ was the vague idea up to now, but I changed my mind.

This patterned edge looks great, but ain’t happening here!

Worked for me, looks fine. I used an oscillating sander but only as my doubled ply wasn’t always flush, the circular saw cut edge was perfect itself for edge banding.

Can you use a 2pack filler and sand n paint it

How much do you need?
11m?

I’ve got some 22mm Oak that I probably don’t need now as I’ve given up self employment and got a job.

I think you do have to have a good edge of course and it needs to be nice and flat.
If you’ve already sanded it and knocked the edges off it’ll not work.

It’ll go onto saw cut edges in my experience, but obviously we’re talking nice fine blades here such as a track saw.

What about painting the edges a dark colour so they blend in or possibly a contrasting colour if you’re that kind of crazy guy!

If you’re using iron on, just make sure it’s quality stuff. Don’t use the self adhesive peel and stick stuff. It’s awful.

I get mine from Edgeband.co.uk

I’ve used the same iron on stuff that Spooky has. Spot on for me, easy to apply and stuck well. Can’t help with the right colour though as I stained the whole lot to match.

Oak probably won’t work, thanks though kayak, as it’s quite different to the light birch-ish main sheet and I’d like it to look the same.

Though maybe an exact colour match isn’t necessary, the varnish I plan to use is coloured so I’m not sure if that’ll disguise any differences or highlight it. (Ronseal satin medium oak)

@spooky_b329 that looks great, like a perfect match.

I used to biscuit on solid, then handplane/sand off any overhang.

Surely this is the perfect excuse to buy the Festool Edge banding machine?

Ironically when I used to design furniture for retail interiors ply look 2mm ABS edge banding was often specified for the MDF tops.

If I bought a Festool every time I had an excuse to buy a Festool, I would have lots of Festools very quickly but no house 😂

Ironically when I used to design furniture for retail interiors ply look 2mm ABS edge banding was often specified for the MDF tops.

Quite liked the look McDonalds had in some branches for a while which was an ABS banding on their MDF furniture that looked like unfinished MDF. Like asking a face painter to paint your own face on your face.

Quite liked the look McDonalds had in some branches for a while which was an ABS banding on their MDF furniture that looked like unfinished MDF. Like asking a face painter to paint your own face on your face.

Sounds like a good premise for a horror film. Joiner gets captured and does this to try and tell people that Ronald’s face looks the same under the makeup…

This patterned edge looks great, but ain’t happening here!

Nope… Looks great, but it’s a shitton of effort and not a very robust edge.

I’ve had the Festool edge bander. It’s great so long as it works,which it generally does until it doesn’t…… Time spent changing the glue colour was annoying so we bought another. 

Quite liked the look McDonalds had in some branches for a while which was an ABS banding on their MDF furniture that looked like unfinished MDF

Well thats McDonalds for you, always the cheap end of the stick.

5 Guys burgers use solid oak for their tables and chairs.

Just slap on some U-profile plastic edging.