I have a job coming up that the designer would like to apply cane fabric to solid panel door. I did a door sample and prayed 3m super 77 on the back side of the cane then clamped it for 45 minutes. It seemed to stick at first but now is lifting slightly. Does anybody have any glue recommendations to apply this. Because of the open weave I cannot apply the glue to the substrate or else you would see it through the holes. I need a super sticky spray adhesive that only requires one face to be glued. Or I just might recommend doing a closed weave cane like the photo below so I can apply the contact adhesive to both surfaces.

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Interesting, we have the exact same situation coming up and had planned to use the exact process you say is failing. What about rolling a light coat of yellow glue? Let me know if you find a solution that works, it may shorten our own learning curve.

We used to use spline to do this, a PIA

IIRC there are people who specialize in installing cane

Titebond "Quick N Thick" Interior wood glue--dries clear. Brush it carefully on the back of the cane (or use a foam roller and a little testing).

Glue it down to the plywood panel and leave clamped up until it sets.

I've done this on SMALLER doors (and, only a few of them) that were clearcoated in conversion varnish, I used Titebond Melamine glue which also cured clear but seemed to stick to the CV sufficiently. I wouldn't attempt this on anything larger than what's in your pic though.

Warranty none of it.

Because there is a conversion varnish finish I am going to try lightly rolling roo glue on the back side of the cane with a small foam roller. Good idea Matt.

Just thinking out lout but a hard roller was my thought somewhat similar to a roll coater were it would only apply glue to the contact points of the cane to the panel as opposed to something soft squishing glue up into the can that would be more visible from the face side.

Be a waste of a lot of glue but if you didnt have many to do I'd think you could lay out a sacrificial sheet of MDF or melamine and mark the size of the cane with a sharpie then roll a pretty heavy/thick coat of glue on the melamine and lay the cane into the wet glue then apply it to your panel that way you'd just coat the contact points then clamp/weight the glued up panel between a couple sheets.

Mark B thanks for thinking out loud. I like the hard roller idea. I was looking for a firm foam roller for the same reason you mentioned but didn't think of a hard roller.

We used hundreds of these cane webbings. All of them were wet for about 1hr before inserted with a spline in the groove. Once dry, the following day webbing would tighten and dry. Correct spline and groove size is very important. Used regular Titebond glue.

What Thomas Said