Woodwork - fixing damaged edge banding.

dcibel

This isn't for a speaker, but woodworking related. I am refurbishing an old coffee and end tables. They have some maple veneer that I am stripping the finish off and refinishing with a BLO and poly wipe on blend. The end tables didn't have any real damage, but the edge banding on the coffee table has some real damage.

Ron_E

If the edge overhangs everywhere I'd put it on the table saw or clamp something straight to the top and use a top bearing bit to clean up the edge and install new banding. Heat from an iron might melt the glue holding the banding
on.

Ron

Silver1omo

I would try to replace all, Ron has a good plan.
Patching seems like too much work to me...

ugly_woofer

Don't patch. just replace as stated above.

dcibel

I should have mentioned, curved edges, not straight. I've done some patchwork before and it wasn't that hard and the result was pretty good, but result for this may look a bit "patchy" blending old veneer with fresh.

The concern I have with tearing all the old stuff off is getting all the glue to go with it so I have a nice smooth surface to apply new stuff, could be lots of work to get rid of glue lumps that refuse to let go. Hot air or an iron is probably the way to go, as long as it doesn't start to lift the face veneer.

Thanks!

Ron_E

If it has curves, make a template by clamping something thin to the top and using a bottom bearing bit on a router. Set the template back from the edge by the thickness of veneer and route away the veneer with a top bearing bit.

Ron

Silver1omo

Yeah, a decent bit should take most of the glue, then a bit of sanding and you should be good to go.
Or get a trimming plane, hone it really good and it should take care of that veneer fast enough.

dcibel

Good news. After contemplating a router jig, I decided to say F it and just try peeling off the veneer and using some hot air. I did my first test on the side which is a smaller section and straight. used a chisel to get the corner started, then the banding peeled off easily from there. With some hot air and a metal putty knife I was able to scrape most of the glue off to have a nice smooth edge. This will only require a bit of minor cleanup to apply new banding.

Freshly peeled:

Scraped smooth with putty knife and hot air:

Billet

Looking good. It seems like a card scraper could smooth that edge nicely.

dcibel

It's smooth enough just using the putty knife that I could probably iron on new banding as is, but I'll give it a little more work just to be sure.

jhollander

If it was just those 3 places I'd use wood filler and paint to match...but I'm late to this party

dcibel

Not just those three places, enough damage all around that I wanted to replace the banding. Top surface is in surprisingly good shape by comparison which makes this particular slab of wood worth saving, otherwise I might as well build with new wood from scratch.

It'll be a while before I'm done stripping the old finish, apply new edge banding and refinish, but I'll be sure to take a photo of the table when its done. It's a nice durable low cost piece for our basement living space.

4thtry

Nice fix. Here's a video of Tommy (TOH) doing the same thing you just did, using an iron instead of a hot air to repair laminate edging:

6thplanet

I miss Norm.

dcibel

I also really miss Norm.

Ironed on, trimmed and re-finished. Much success

PWRRYD

Did Norm die?

Tom_S

Thankfully no - he just retired from the shows to work on other projects. I finally pitched some old episodes of The New Yankee Workshop on VHS tape a few years ago. I learned quite a lot about videography from watching those shows. Dick Holden was a master with the camera.

6thplanet

Right, just missed him in front of the camera.... replicating an 18th century mahogany corbel.😉

dcibel

Norm Macdonald died. 6thplanet's post was only a few days after.

6thplanet

Wrong Norm, but that sucked too