After much online searching, I learned there are companies around the world that still manufacture laminated boards, such as blockboard and laminboard. But they sell to large-scale buyers, and won't speak with me about the pair of 16"x18" x 3/4" pieces of laminboard I need to build a guitar.
Blockboard and laminboard consists of a core made of wooden strips, placed edge to edge between two layers of plywood, which are then glued together under high pressure.
I designed and built a laminate press to provide the pressure, with an oak frame, a melamine base, and a crank to provide downward pressure to a 28.5 lb (13 kg; 2 stone) slab of 3/8” rolled steel.
Next, I found sheets of 1/8" Baltic birch plywood at Exotic Woods in Burlington, Ontario, along with a variety of core woods. Not knowing which particular core wood to use, I chose alder, ash, pine, and poplar.
A friend gifted me his Delta thickness planer, and I trimmed the wood down to ½" thick, then sliced it up into ¼" strips on my table saw.
After reading that blockboard was commonly glued together with urea formaldehyde (UF) or polyvinyl acetate (PVA) glues, I went in search of adhesives. Unfortunately, it appeared that manufacturers won't ship these adhesives around the world, so it was a lengthy search. I finally obtained some Circa 1850, a UF glue, and some Titebond Original, an alipathic resin glue which is similar to PVA, but stronger.
This being something of an experiment, I decided to make laminboard for two guitars, and try both glues.
I cut up some 3/4" oak to make the blocks that form the heart of the guitar, cut the baltic birch to accommodate the oak, and glued it all together.
This picture shows the laminate press without its 3/8" rolled steel plate, with a bottom body blank under construction. The DeWalt clamps can supposedly provide 600 lbs of horizontal pressure each, and the dowels concentrate the pressure on the laminboard cores. The steel plate and crank provide the vertical pressure.
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| The Finished Product — 3/4" Ash Laminboard |
A day later, I had my first home-made laminboard.
Both types of glue seemed to work equally well, and during the making of the four small sheets of laminboard, I was able to figure out the best way to apply the glue without making too much mess.