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How to glue hardwood to plywood core door?

Woodworking Asked on November 14, 2020

I’d like to create a modern interior door. No rails/stiles. Just horizontal stacked panels stained. I plan to use maple or birch.

I don’t want to use a paper-thin hardwood veneer plywood. I’ve read that gluing thicker wood to ply will lead to failure. So, how do engineered hardwood manufacturers manage to glue veneer 5/32″ thick to ply core?

How were slab doors done in the olden days done? Solid wood? If so, how did they avoid wood movement issues?

What’s more likely to prevent warping: solid wood frame with mortise/tenon or say baltic ply core?

2 Answers

I have seen 5/16 face nailed (brads) hardwood planking in old (100+ years) in Vancouver. The usual floor construction was 1x8 shiplap, run diagonally across the joists, then the hardwood (or sometimes edge grain doug fir) nailed to cross the joists at right angles.

Anyway: If you can get a supply of thinner cut hardwood, then I would consider making a door by gluing and screw two plywood panels 3/4" thick together, then surfacing each side with 1/4" thick hardwood strips. This would give you a 2" thick door, which I think is still a standard thickness that will work with conventional hardware. By having the same material on both faces, the stresses should balance -- assuming similar temperature and humidity on both sides.

I leave the problem of hiding the plywood edges as an exercise for the student.

Answered by Sherwood Botsford on November 14, 2020

Panel and frame doors appeared to address wood movement problems specifically, as well as planked doors. I don't think there's going to be a problem if you'd glue 1/8" thick veneer to mdfplywood substrate, since it's an interior door and there's enough of holding power in modern glues to withstand movements of thick veneers (if there are any). 1/8" is sufficient for sandingplaningscraping but not thick enough to cause shrinkage cracks.

Answered by eGlyph on November 14, 2020

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