Poplar Laminated

[Vikingcaster]

I have a couple of poplar boards in my basement that I bought at Lowes and I'm thinking of building a tele type body out of it, but I'm unsure if I'll be able to use it for it since it's only 4/4 (a little under an inch) in thickness, and would require me to laminate them on top of each other to yield an acceptable thickness. Has anyone done this before with any type of wood, but specifically poplar? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[Dean]

I'am guessing you mean 4 feet x 4 feet x1 inch......yes you can put two 20 inch x 15 inch x 1 inch boards together.I would reverse the grain to help stablelize the wood.And make sure the glue sides are flat .Wipe them with naptha to make sure they are real clean and dry,add a good coat of glue and clamp it real good .Let it set over night and draw your shape on it in the morning.No problems.

[low end fuzz]

im sure he meant 4/4 in refering to only thickness; but heed deans unspoken warning; that you dont want to have to start gluing up end grain to get overall length;

and if your laminating poplar half and half i would definatly paint it a solid color; and you'll have one kick a$$ tele;

[Vikingcaster]

Thank you very much, guys! Yes, it will be a solid color for sure. It has a lot of mineral staining, which some people like, but I don't.

By 'reversing the grain', do you mean one board lengthwise, the other the opposite?

[low end fuzz]

always lengthwise; if for no other reason, you dont want to be sanding that much end grain

[Dean]

always lengthwise; if for no other reason, you dont want to be sanding that much end grain

+1 on the end grain

[Rick500]

Reversing the grain:

The end grain would look like this:

|\\\\\\\\\\\\\|

|/////////////|

or

|//////\\\\\\\|

|\\\\\\///////|

Pardon my lousy ASCII art. But you should be able to get the idea from that. The top board's grain goes the opposite way of the bottom board's grain.