long miters of commercial veneered board

[reck123]

Good afternoon Uk workshop Team,

I am making a copy of a large bathroom cabinet for a friend. here is the link to the product i have to imitate.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/duravit-fogo--305259680966537993/

It is two meters high and 60 cm wide. For economical reasons I am making it from 19mm walnut commercial veneered blockboard (available here in germany(

The front door appears to have a miter fold construction. Whilst I am familiar and usually get good results with miter joints, I am worried about the long front corner being to fragile with the veneered corner. Or is this acceptable?, if it gets knocked it gets knocked. I also worry that if the long miter is slightly off the light coloured substrate will show through.

Here are my ideas-

- glue solid wood Edge banding to the sides before cutting the meters. So the miter meeting points are solid wood and not veneer. Making a potentialy cleaner joint and a more durable corner

- Alternatively cut the miters and glue. then route a shallow rabbit along the miter edge and inlay solid wood stock. Similar outcome to the first but scary operation perhaps.

- Simply edge band the panel and butt joints the sides. easy construction and not so fragile edge. The edge banding is a pretty good colour match to the veneer so the seam difference shouldn’t stand out so much.

-or just aim to exicute meters very well and lightly sand veneered edge.


I would love your opinions on this as I feel a bit of a crossroads with this one.

Many thanks

 

[niall Y]

I don't quite understand the shape of the door from the photo, but I'm guessing that in plan it is L shaped. If it is hinged at the side of the cabinet then you will need some strength in the mitre joint. I would want to use solid wood at this point. And, as you state in one of your options - probably use a butt-joint instead.

I used to make a range of display tables with veneered board, They were lipped with solid wood to protect the edges in use. The downside is that the solid timber had to be planed to bring the edge to the level of the veneer. I used to use a scraper plane and carefully count the shavings I took off, so as not to reach the surface beneath the veneer. It was always a bit of a gamble, as one didn't quite know how much of the 0.6 mm veneer had been removed, when sanded by the manufacturer.

I later changed the way I made them, by lipping the board first and then veneering over the boards and lipping afterwards. This might be a better way to tackle your door, especially if you use a mitre.

 

[reck123]

Thanks Nial! that's useful feedback. here are the two illustrations the 1st being the mitered version and the second being the butt joint. of course the 1st grain wrap is a bit more elegant but for durability the second butt joint is probably the best route and easier/less fiddly.

I also found an example online of a grainwrapped veneered case where solid wood has been atatched at the ends of the commercial veneered boards before cutting the miters - providing a hard edge/ though I wonder if its worth it compared to the butt joint.