resawing mdf?

[larry merlau]

i have been asked to repair a drawer i did everything i could to deter him from having me do it.. he isnt fussy and has no time frame. i told him he could buy a different piece of furniture cheaper than fixing this one.. still wants it fixed. so my idea is to resaw the good face off and glue it to a piece of maple.. so that means resawing it to a thickness of a small 1/8" thick. to get the fake pattern on it. but would have real wood for the main joinery.. pics below. any one resawed mdf? any other ideas?

 

[Jim DeLaney]

Maybe resaw it to about a quarter inch, then run multiple passes thru the drum sander? It'll be pretty fragile, for sure.

 

[Rennie Heuer]

What Jim said. Sounds like it would be super fragile.

 

[Don Baer]

from the second picture it appear to me to be a veneer, laminated to the mdf so using Jim idea should work.

 

[Ted Calver]

I'd be tempted to try and find an off cut of maple backed mdfcore plywood from a local cabinet shop and glue the resawed face onto that...even if I had to plane off one face of the mdf to make the thickness right.

 

[larry merlau]

my intent was to glue to solid wood ted. thought about the sanding jim.. also might be a good idea to double stick tape it to a plywood backer to avoid a wrinkle when sanding

 

[larry merlau]

Repaired and back in service, resawed the MDF front to 3/16" then made a relief in the new front to accept it. redid all groves, sliding dovetail on the sides to attach to front. then had to match color of the insert. got pretty close with some assistance from Jim Delany. It was in pieces when i got it and dog chewed.

 

[Tom Niemi]

Looks like a good repair bud

 

[Ted Calver]

Good as new!!

 

[glenn bradley]

Nicely done Larry. You da man!

 

[Bill Satko]

Good as new!!

No, better than new!

 

[Robert Horky]

great looking repair. If one did not know, one could not tell it was repaired.

 

[Rennie Heuer]

You done Good.

 

[Jim DeLaney]

When client sees that they'll want you to do the other three drawers.

 

[larry merlau]

When client sees that they'll want you to do the other three drawers.

no i don't think so Jim, i am getting closer to being able to say NO, and have them believe me

 

[Jonathan Shively]

That thing was truly dog eared! (They must have a yellow lab! ). That is a wonderful repair, bet it is better than new. Wonderful work Larry.