As a professional cabinetmaker, I’m constantly gluing solid-wood edging to plywood cabinet parts. I typically use a continuous spline or biscuits to align the parts. When cutting the slots for these, I try to err on the side of leaving the solid wood a little higher than the veneered plywood surface. But if the veneer side is flush—or a tiny bit higher, which can happen—it’s all too easy to sand through the veneer when leveling the joints. The solution is simple. Before sanding I run a squiggly pencil line along the joint. As I sand, the pencil marks gradually disappear, first on the slightly higher areas and then across both surfaces. It’s a simple guide for perfect sanding, with no unsightly sand-throughs on the plywood.

—TONY O’MALLEY, Emmaus, Pa.

Illustrations by Dan Thornton
From Fine Woodworking issue #303

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