We build a cabinet that has end panels mitered to faceframes. The box itself is either made out of pre-finished maple plywood or if the cabinet is paint grade out of raw plywood.
We need to come up with a better way to affix to the end panel to the cabinet box.
We currently juxtapose the faceframe to the box however meets the condition we need to see on the inside. What we struggle with is how to shim and affix the end panel, particularly to prefinished plywood.
The distance that needs to be shimmed varies depending on the situation. Our current strategy is to produce shims as necessary then affix them to the box. If the box is prefinished plywood we first abrade the plywood with a hand held belt sander so that there is something for the titebond yellow glue to get purchase to.
I am thinking that it might be better to use a panel adhesive that comes out of a caulk gun. The adhesive being pliable could perhaps act as the shim as well as the glue mechanism. Adhesive that comes out of a caulk tube is pliable so we would only need to hold the panel square and to position until the glue set up.
If we could get an adhesive that would stick to the prefinished plywood we would also no longer need to do the scratch pattern with the belt sander.
Does anybody have a better idea for how to join the end panel to the prefinished plywood panel?
Any suggestions for what kind of glue would be mooshable enough to act as a shim? (something relatively non-toxic).
Are there any delivery mechanisms for applying the thick glue that wouldn't involve a lot of squeezing by hand on a caulk gun?