Plywood buying advice

[David_Nicolaou]

I am after a couple of sheets of plywood to make a tool cabinet out of. What should I be asking for a the woodyard as I am aware there are so many types. It is for workshop use but honestly i don't know where to start?

Any advice would be warmly welcome

 

[Lord Nibbo]

I am after a couple of sheets of plywood to make a tool cabinet out of. What should I be asking for a the woodyard as I am aware there are so many types. It is for workshop use but honestly i don't know where to start?

Any advice would be warmly welcome

Birch.... Birch.... and more birch or you could spend a little more with veneered face of your choice.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's got to be birch ply from Finland, Russia, or the Baltic.

That's the very light coloured stuff with lots and lots of very thin laminations.

You can screw it and joint it and it is very strong and stable.

'Ordinary' plywood that you may find at B&Q is made from various cheap far-eastern hardwoods, has few laminations (or layers) and crumbles around the edges when you try to work with it.

Birch ply is more expensive - but it needn't be too frightening. I bought an 8x4 sheet of 25mm thick Finnish last week for a guitar amp speaker cabinet. It was £26 + VAT from Pennine Timber in Middleton, Manchester. Thinner sizes will be correspondingly cheaper.

Cheers
Brad

 

[Scrit]

Birch is available in descending magnitudes of quality from Finland, Latvia (Baltic), Russia (also sometimes called Baltic) and China. I feel that quoting a price on birch plywood without quoting the quality is quite misleading as there is a major variation in quality/price. The best surface grade (in birch plywood) with no blemishes or defects is A (almost mythical, these days), followed by S, B and BB. For anything where only one side shows then a B/BB (one side B, the other BB) will be more than adequate - just check the sheet as a Ruissian BB is normally much inferior to a Finnish one. Personally for a tool cabinet I see no problems in using African, Far Eastern, Chinese or South American hardwood plywood which may or may not be available cheaper than the birch although all are coarser than birch and will require edge lipping to finish. I'd even consider MDF or MFC (melamine faced chipboard) as they are both considerably cheaper (more dosh to spend on tools, therefore) - does that make me a phillistine or a pragmatist?

Scrit

 

[David_Nicolaou]

Thanks for the advice everybody - I have seen photos of plywood with loads of laminations but never knew what to ask for. Brilliant, thanks for arming me with the info. Baltic it is then. Cheers for the technical info scrit - they might take me a bit more seriously if I know what I am talking about.

All the best and have a cracking christmas.

Best regards

David

 

[Anonymous]

I feel that quoting a price on birch plywood without quoting the quality is quite misleading

Sorry, Scrit.

I hope I wasn't being misleading; I just didn't want to get too technical.

I've no idea what grade my plywood was as I've left the bill at work - like pretty well all my timber though, I went and picked it out myself so I'm not really bothered what grade someone else has given it.

It was jolly nice, though, and worked a treat.

The point I was trying to make was that good quality birch ply needn't be particularly expensive if you shop around.

Happy Christmas

Cheers
Brad