Gluing mixed materials

Between glue-ups again....

Rosewood is one of those very durable, dense exotic woods that contains an oil which interferes with wood glue. To reduce this interference, I wipe down the soon-to-be-glued surface of the rosewood with acetone. The acetone acts as a degreaser to remove the excess oil, and also evaporates quickly, leaving a dry clean surface for gluing.

For these doors, the core will be MDF. MDF is a man made composite of wood dust and binders, from the factory it has two very smooth faces, which paint very well but usually need to be scuff sanded to accept glue. Conversely, any milled or cut edge tends to be VERY porous and absorbers glues and finishes to an extreme degree. This means plenty of glue must be used to ensure the joint will bond.

Since I will be gluing rosewood to this milled MDF edge, I make sure to apply liberal amounts of glue evenly spread on both mating surfaces. In other circumstances I might also employ a spline or biscuit joints, or mated "edge-band" profiles to increase the strength. However, since the but joint of MDF to rosewood will be reinforced between a sandwich of veneers I am not concerned for it's strength.