Birch ply alternative?

[Britman]

What about Eucalyptus Hardwood Plywood? I know Jewson sell it, about £90 per 8x4.
I've never worked with it so cannot attest to it's quality. I have also hear of people having an allergic reaction to it.

 

[johnnyb]

I've just started using poplar ply as birch is ridiculous atm.
it's made by garnica in Spain. the poplar throughout ply is called " efficiency" and its an interior only board. considerably lighter than birch. its a bit soft but seems stable. the surface finish is a tiny bit nicer than much birch. the better board is called "elegance" and the stuff I've got has a birch face but I believe other veneers are available. I reckon this is a step up from birch ply(finishwise) having very smooth almost defect free surfaces on both faces. beautiful.
I paid an independant ply dealer £75 for the efficiency in 18mm and £35 for the " elegance" in 6mm

 

[Reffc]

I recently had to build a 1.2m tall CD rack and used MDF which I then veneered. Plenty strong enough, easy to work with and a lot cheaper than Birch ply. Filled up with CD's it's almost immovable but the spans are fairly narrow. If it were me, I'd use MDF and just limit the spans by introducing vertical partitions every 300mm or so. Don't buy the cheap MDF in DIY stores, it's cheap and nasty and not as tough or strong as the higher density stuff available from good wood merchants. I recently bought some quality high density MDF (800Kg/m3) and paid around £30/sheet. Standard density is cheaper. You can also buy veneered MDF sheets and then just edge strip the edges. (yet do do that for mine!)

 

[johnnyb]

I always find joining and cutting and finishing and lifting mdf to be a complete pain generally. as an example poplar ply is 460kg a m3 birch is 620

 

[Ollie78]

Wisa twin plywood is good stuff, it's spruce core layers with birch face veneers.
I agree with the above suggestions of adding a decent wood lipping to add stiffness of shelves, I do this with plywood as well.
I generally prefer ply as its nicer to work with, current pricing has MR mdf at a similar price to plywood anyway. I dislike standard non moisture resistant mdf as it's just fluffy and annoying.

Ollie

 

[Reffc]

I recently used some Wisa in 12mm thickness and found it was pretty full of voids so wouldn't buy again except for utility work. Could have been a specific batch issue but it wasn't that good. I found gaboon ply better tbh which I used in a couple of workshop builds. Took a decent finish too.

 

[Ollie78]

I recently used some Wisa in 12mm thickness and found it was pretty full of voids so wouldn't buy again except for utility work. Could have been a specific batch issue but it wasn't that good. I found gaboon ply better tbh which I used in a couple of workshop builds. Took a decent finish too.

Was it actually Twin, I found it pretty decent quality with very few voids. Wisa make loads of different types.

 

[Reffc]

Yes, but could have been a dodgy batch. Only had 2 sheets.

 

[Robsta]

I've just started using poplar ply as birch is ridiculous atm.
it's made by garnica in Spain. the poplar throughout ply is called " efficiency" and its an interior only board. considerably lighter than birch. its a bit soft but seems stable. the surface finish is a tiny bit nicer than much birch. the better board is called "elegance" and the stuff I've got has a birch face but I believe other veneers are available. I reckon this is a step up from birch ply(finishwise) having very smooth almost defect free surfaces on both faces. beautiful.
I paid an independant ply dealer £75 for the efficiency in 18mm and £35 for the " elegance" in 6mm

Slightly late to this thread, but I'm looking for sources of ply at the moment for building furniture. Could you share who the dealer was that you sourced the Garnica from? Many Thanks.

 

[johnnyb]

I would do but your from Oxford which is to far( unless you drive up!)



his names Gary and he is a great resource to be honest. he is a one man band that sources quality ply for furniture( officially stoke ply)

 

[benhen31]

Slightly late to this thread, but I'm looking for sources of ply at the moment for building furniture. Could you share who the dealer was that you sourced the Garnica from? Many Thanks.

Try asking your local yard if they can supply this: A birch ply alternative found?
Which has apparently been developed as a Baltic Birch alternative for furniture making. I'm getting a sheet to test via my local yard.

 

[Reffc]

Horses for courses. If visual appearance comes more important than structural integrity or for cladding, then there are many alternative ways of achieving this including balance veneering cheaper MDF. If structural integrity comes first along with high strength then the costs have to be past onto the customer and I won't compromise on quality so will continue using birch ply but it's understandable for personal projects to reach out and refresh one's self of where things are in the market these days wrt to visually pleasing alternatives. For my own work n loudspeaker cabinet construction, birch remains my preferred option especially as with hand crafted large cabinets, labour remains the over-riding cost.

 

[benhen31]

I won't compromise on quality so will continue using birch ply

The only problem being that with sanctions, baltic birch is impossible to buy at the moment, no matter how much you're willing to spend. There just isn't any available for the foreseeable future. It will be years before sanctions are lifted.

 

[Reffc]

I've had no problems buying it from my local supplier but maybe I've just been lucky?

 

[benhen31]

I've had no problems buying it from my local supplier but maybe I've just been lucky?

I think they'll just be using up the stock they have. It's illegal to import now so no one can get any more into the country, which is why the prices for what's already here have gone up so much.

 

[recipio]

Is blockboard obsolete. ? It is probably the optimum choice for painting and load bearing as long as you hide the edges. It's been a few years since I bought a sheet however.

 

[Reffc]

Illegal to import ply? Not strictly true, surely? I have only been informed that importing Russian sourced ply is banned and then more to do with Russia cutting off the UK and others from its export lists but it's still produced in other Scandinavian and Eastern states including Latvia and Ukraine (until their factories all close shop). I will have to look into this more now as I need another batch for an upcoming project. There are many UK based speaker companies building large numbers of cabinets in Birch ply, including Fyne Audio, so I must speak with them and find out who their supply is coming from.


Edit: I have just checked and it is NOT illegal to import ply....that's just internet rumour mill nonsense. My supplier is able to get me all the 10x5 sheets I need on 2 weeks back order. The only catch is it's short grain which isn't a problem is I cut it long grain across the boards anyway as I only need 1.2m lengths. This is currently sourced from Latvia, not Ukraine, but I am reliably informed other countries are still making it and supplying to the UK.

 

[benhen31]

Edit: I have just checked and it is NOT illegal to import ply....that's just internet rumour mill nonsense. My supplier is able to get me all the 10x5 sheets I need on 2 weeks back order. The only catch is it's short grain which isn't a problem is I cut it long grain across the boards anyway as I only need 1.2m lengths. This is currently sourced from Latvia, not Ukraine, but I am reliably informed other countries are still making it and supplying to the UK.

Good news. Hopefully the supply will slowly pick up enough volume to replace the lost Russian supply. At the moment, my local timber mill tells me they just can't get it. Sounds like your supplier has a good contact!

 

[Chrisd3]

I would do but your from Oxford which is to far( unless you drive up!)



his names Gary and he is a great resource to be honest. he is a one man band that sources quality ply for furniture( officially stoke ply)

Hi Johnny

I’m in Stoke and have been looking for a good source of quality sheet materials. Any chance you can forward on some contact details please bud

Thank you

Chris

 

[Robsta]

Try asking your local yard if they can supply this: A birch ply alternative found?
Which has apparently been developed as a Baltic Birch alternative for furniture making. I'm getting a sheet to test via my local yard.

I'd actually got in contact with my nearest Falcon timber depot in High Wycombe about birch ply supply, and as it happens they already supply my local sheet material supplier and were in discussion about them stocking the poplar product. I've now been quoted £96+VAT for 18mm (8'x4') for the poplar which is about parity with the interior birch prices from 6-months ago. I'm probably going to give this a go.

Depending on your needs, I also found stock availability from Timbnet (Latvian birch, 10'x5' sheets, £500 MOQ, free delivery) and James Latham (Wisa-Birch 8'x4', £400 MOQ, £60 delivery). James Latham also had some of the Garnica elegance, but only in 9mm and 6mm (I need 18mm and 15mm also).

Cheers, Rob.