I have a current project of making coasters of the different places I live. Engraved in wood (3mm). But I don’t want the wood alone to be the coaster surface since they will be subject to humidity/ spill and condensation, so I thought of putting an acrylic sheet over it. But I don’t know how to join them.
I tried screws/ nut and bolt but the smallest are too long for this setup / the nut would neet to scrap on the surface (not optimal for a coaster).
I thought of going faces, but both the glue is en issue and it could be seen from the face.
So I was thinking of adding an edge trim/ band of adhesive around the edge to both finish it but also to join the two surfaces. But I don’t know what to use. Any recommendation?
Also open to other ideas. I did think of dowel through both, but not convinced.
I have had similar situations with not wanting the glue to show through the top acrylic, so did something like you suggest here. I would just go ahead and glue the acryiic sheet on the top…but only using glue around the edges, then add a trim finish / band on top of that to hide the glued part.
Or you can laquer your wood, and glue the acrylic to the bottom. I personally like to add cork to the bottom to catch any run-off liquid and condensation.
Like with these coasters, i tried a variety of things. Acrylic on top, wood in the middle, cork on bottom. Also acrylic in the middle and cork on the bottom.
I think acrylic on top, i put 3M double sided tape on my wood pieces before cutting, then pressed everything together during assembly. But if you can get the 3m perfect on application, there is a chance it’ll show through the acrylic.
My coasters were about 6mm. The wood and acrylic i used were about 3mm each. The cork i used was extremely thin and i bought it in sheets that i cut in the glowforge. It didn’t add very much to the height. Maybe 1-2mm. So with just the wood and cork, it wouldn’t be 6mm, and you can probably apply the cork before cutting.
