Covering Plywood Edges and Surface Finishing

[Johanne Perez]

I'm building plywood shelving. What recommendations would you have for the edges? Spackle vs edge banding? Also, any recommendations of finishing with paint, shellac, vs a varnish? I'm a newbie at this. Used my rip cut and was very pleased by the outcome. Moving on to using my R3 jig in a bit, but I'm debating whether to apply surface finishing before joining the pieces. Enjoying this new hobby a lot.

[Tim Grace]

For the cabinets in the shop - not works of art by any stretch - I glued and finish nailed the off-cuts from edge squaring the face frame boards. I only had to do the permanently attached center shelf, every other edge in the cabinet was covered by the face frame.  The off-cuts matched the thickness of the plywood perfectly and hide the plies.

[James P. Cottingham]

Not to beat a dead horse but Start Woodworking has an article on hardwood edging.

[Johanne Perez]

Thanks to all the advice. I've gotten my hands on some 5/8" wide x 1/4 " wood strips. They seem to fit great.  I'll try and post some pics of how they look.