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From the pages of Fine Woodworking Magazine
Three Tongue-and-Groove Edge Treatments for Plywood
Besides giving your plywood edge added protection, these treatments let you shape the edge into a bullnose, a bevel, or any number of configurations
by Mario Rodriguez
The three common versions of a tongue-and-groove lumber edge for plywood offer the most protection for a plywood edge. A significant advantage of adding a substantial piece of lumber to the edge of plywood is that you can shape that edge in any number of decorative configurations, such as a bullnose, an ogee, or a bevel.
But these edge treatments have a couple of drawbacks. They are time-consuming to carry out, and each of them produces a visibly discernible seam.
You can go about cutting these joints a couple of different ways. You can buy a matched set of router bits to make the required cuts, or you can make all of the necessary cuts on a tablesaw using either a combination blade or a stacked dado set, or both. There's not a lot of room for mistakes when you're setting up these cuts -- you must be precise.
I usually begin by plowing the grooves first, using a stacked dado set. Naturally, you must be prepared to make allowances for plywood that is not a full 3/4 in. thick, because it rarely is. Plowing the groove from both sides guarantees that it will be perfectly centered, regardless of the actual thickness. After plowing the grooves, clamp a plywood scrap to the fence and reposition it to cut the tongues to fit. I prefer to make the shoulder cuts first, using a combination blade for a clean cut. When gluing up any of the three versions shown here, a clamped, slightly concave batten will give you tighter seams, distribute the pressure more evenly across the span of the edge and will require fewer clamps.
Mario Rodriguez is a contributing editor to Fine Woodworking.
Detail photos: Kelly J. Dunton; other photos: William Duckworth
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