Wood trim help.

[Kurt_]

So I'm building a desk. Nothing too fancy or complicated.

My problem is that the desk, viewed from the top, is an "L" shape, with three rounded edges. One is a 90 degree bend with a 19" radius, the other a 90 degree bend with a 12" radius, and the third a 90 degree bend with a 3" radius.

The surface is a veneered medium density fibreboard (ie top surface is birch, the rest is fibres). I want to router a rounded edge along its perimeter so my arms won't get poked. However, I don't want exposed fibres.

Any suggestions/solutions?

Off the top of my head:

- Get some 3/4" quarter round trim, steam bend it, and glue it on to the fibreboard.
- Round the fibreboard and finish it like that.

[DopestKidEva]

vacuum form caps and glue them on?

[64M320N3]

The first thing that came to my mind is after you are done routing you can sand it down and apply a thick coat of varnish or paint and then a finish... or something to that extent.
While easier than your approach, yours sounds like it might last longer/look better.

[Kurt_]

The problem is I don't think I can steam bend quarter round to a 3" radius without breaking it.

[bicostp]

3" inside radius? That would be tough, even with a lot of boiling/steaming. You'd have to cut a bunch of notches in the half round, then steam the parts that stay attached, then fill in the seams with wood filler. That or try to carve something out, but that would be tough to make look right.

Use our old friend Bondo if you're going to paint the desk, and steam bend some half-round for the rest. Just mix it up with some extra hardener and slap it on there, then sand it to the right shape when it dries. Hey, you laugh but we used Bondo to level out the parts of our bathroom floor the tub sits on when we remodeled last summer, and it's been holding my grandfather's kitchen cabinets level for 30 years.

That or you could always get some of that plastic T-molding and rout a groove around the whole thing.

I think they make some adhesive veneer strips for this purpouse, but I've never used it.

This is why I really don't like MDF. Plywood (especially finish-grade plywood) looks so much nicer when it's cut.

[Kurt_]

The veneer strips can't bend. This thing isn't going to be painted.

I'm thinking some heavy coats of lacquer or something should do the trick. Sand it to a matte finish, and nobody should care too much.

[Black Six]

My suggestion would be to use some iron-on edge banding to hide the grain, then just give it a little sanding to knock down the edges before you finish it. After you put the polyurethane on it shouldn't 'poke your arms' too much. Another option would be to only use the MDF for everything except the top and get some better wood for that where you can actually route it like you want to.

[Tibia]

Black Six has the best idea. Edge banding is designed for tight corners. Hell, it comes in tight rolls. It also comes in several varied widths, so you can match your thickness pretty closely. If it's too wide, you can trim it flush with a hand plane, then sand a slight rounding into it. MDF doesn't route worth crap. It's likely to chunk apart and make a mess.

[Kurt_]

Well I'm going to at lesat TRY to route it. I have some scrap. I have the desk pretty much done, actually. I need to tidy up the edges (they're still rough-cut) using god knows what, then route the edges or add trim, then apply polyurethane on the top and paint on the rest, screw it together, and I'm done.