Getting a nice finish on my plywood?

[Andy7]

I'm building some boxing for a boiler and to conceal pipework on a sink in a new bathroom.
I've used 12mm marine ply from wickes. Lovely stuff, nice finish on the front.
However, I want to trim the edges where it's slightly oversized and a little on the skew (actually, just the one edge, the rest all seem to have cut perfectly - which is a first for me).

I daren't run a hand-plane or even sandpaper along the edge for fear of catching the top veneer and making an ugly splinter on my front surface.

The ply will be primed then painted with either a bathroom paint or some kind of matt oil based paint (some re-iterated passing advice on that would be handy too).

Any advice on treating exposed edges too? I made a boiler cupboad door from the same ply and want a nice edge. I think I heard someone say put PVA on the edge, then sand and repeat.

Thanks all... project's gonna be done for Christmas if it kills me.
Will post pics when it's done.


Andy

 

[awbcm]

First thing you have wasted you hard earned pennies on purchasing plywood be it WBP or marine. You should have purchased MR (moisture resistant) MDF the green coloured stuff.

You can plan the edges of any plywood and you will get very acceptable results as long as you use a hand plan and it’s sharp.

To get a A1 finish to the edges of plywood you will need to plan the edges and then fill the edges with a fine surface filler. Any single pack filler will do or you can use Polly filler.

The offer thing you can do is apply iron on edging and paint that.

Have a good read of this thread and adapt it to suite your needs.

Some members will say glue a strip of timber on the cut edges and sand to the same level as the plywood. But using this method you will se the joint between the plywood and timber for ever and a day.

And don’t forget you will need to grain fill the face of the plywood before painting to get a A1 finish.

 

[Andy7]

Thanks for the good tips there!

I've not seen any MR-MDF in my local Wickes, didn't know such a thing existed which was why I steared WELL clear of MDF in a moisture-prone environemnt.

Well, three coats of well rubbed down primer and the surfaces are starting to look pretty damn smooth. There was only one edge that was worrying me and a spot of filler seems to have sorted that out nicely. I tried filling my countersunk screw holes with some waterproof tile grout that I happend to have open while I was doing my tiling. It sanded down very nicely, took the primer coats and are now invisible - we'll see how those fare over the years.

All-in-all, I think this is going to work. I'd have been much happier with MR-MDF to work with, but I wonder if it would have been a bit heavy for the four little flush hinges I've got on the door to the boiler boxing. That ply is surprisingly light.

Andy