Bundles of presized wood veneer strips are prepared for longitudinal edge adhesive by vertical alignment of the veneer strip face planes on a horizontal machine bed surface between open clamp jaws. Upon satisfactory alignment of the strip edges on the bed surface, the clamp jaws are closed on the bundle and translated from the bed surface to a horizontal adhesive transfer plane. An adhesive transfer carriage traverses the bundle length to coat the veneer strip bottom edges by a rotatively driven wheel having a lower chordal segment immersed within an adhesive reservoir. After completing the adhesive application pass, the clamp jaws are opened on manual command to release the veneer strip bundle to manual inversion. While the clamp jaws are open, the adhesive transfer carriage is returned to the starting position with a non-rotating adhesive application wheel. Neither the adhesive application wheel nor the adhesive reservoir are structurally secured to the transfer carriage frame to facilitate respective isolation and solvent immersion for cleaning.