Where to buy plywood?

[RichD1]

Wanted some 18mm ply to make a mitre saw stand and some storage units for the workshop so didn't need any fancy finished boards so had some WBP delivered by my local builders merchants. Initially it looked very good and flat but when I cut it up into panels it started to warp and twist. I also noticed quite a few voids exposed by the cuts and areas where the ply layers were not consistent. I did manage to get enough flat panels to complete my small project but when I went to bead the edges with some Richard Burbidge 18mm x 6mm D hardwood moulding I discovered that my ply was only 16.6mm thick!!!

I guess they sell it primarily for flooring, wall sheathing and roof decking, they did offer me marine ply for double the price, maybe I should have gone for that.

Where and how much should I pay for good quality standard plywood for cabinet work? By the way the local merchant wasn't Travis or Jewson, do you think their stuff would have been better.

 

[dkaardal]

Back in Canada the high quality stuff was called Baltic Birch Plywood, here I think it's commonly called Russian Birch plywood.

I bought a fair bit from a place called Farmwood Products - they sell on ebay as well as on their website. Ebay seemed easiest in my case. I had my order dimensioned to a cutlist I'd sent them, and it was all done very accurately. The plywood was good quality, and the price wasn't crazy - mainly due to the free shipping.

There were other places I noticed that were cheaper for the sheet material itself, but since I needed it cut - and delivered - those guys suited me pretty well.

http://www.cutplywood.co.uk/#!products/mainPage

 

[wallace]

I'm sure ply comes in various grades. I remember getting a load for a shed and the quality was pants. It was sold as 18mm but it was less. I got some from my local merchants 'Dove' which had a hardwood finish and cost £26 for a sheet

 

[Andy RV]

18mm BB Birch Ply is £42.00+vat from my local merchant, not cheap but is it very good quality with practically no voids and 'patching'.

This may be of interest to you;

http://www.lathamtimber.co.uk/icmeditor ... lywood.pdf

 

[custard]

Even the very best quality ply suffers from the defects you mention...just in smaller doses!

All plywood is in "nominal" sizes, and you'll struggle to find a sheet that's exactly 18.0mm. I've found thickness variations between sheets, and even small variations within a single sheet! Plus "flatness" is very much a relative term. You'll get more thickness accuracy and consistency, plus better flatness and stability, from a good quality moisture resistant MDF. But then you've got the problem that MDF doesn't take screws as well as ply, that is sags more, and can't take the punishment that ply can.

All you can really do is recognise the issues inherent to the materials and work around them to the best of your ability.

I've seen examples in top end workshops where they need a structural component that will be faced with a thick, saw cut veneer. The core is best quality baltic birch, rough cut, rested to allow stresses to work themselves out, finish cut, then passed through a thickness sander to ensure it's flat and true. Then it's faced with 2mm MDF because MDF gives a better ground for veneering. It then has solid wood lippings applied and flushed off, and it's put back through the thickness sander a second time. The veneers are applied, flushed off again, and finish scraped or sanded to final dimensions. It's a huge amount of work, but you end up with a side rail (for example) that can be very strongly loose tenoned into a leg and will be dead flat and stable, so it could form part of a drawer cavity that will take a really precisely fitted drawer.

 

[pcb1962]

By the way the local merchant wasn't Travis or Jewson, do you think their stuff would have been better.

No. I bought some WBP from Travis Perkins last year, it was terrible, full of holes, exactly the same rubbish that they sell in Wickes, which is not surprising as they are part of the same group.

 

[themackay]

I am looking for some myself builderdepot online are £51 for Birch 18 mm delivery is @ £50 not to bad if you want a few sheets

 

[partsandlabour]

I use James Latham for sheet products and sometimes for hardwoods too as they have a depot near us and we have a long relationship with them.

Always best to check at the depot if you need it to be spot on. It's a natural product which comes from many different sources. It's supposed to be graded, but you can get big variations between one batch of BB/BB for example, depending on the batch/supplier. Sometimes the lower grades like CP/CP can come out better than the BB (supposed to be higher grade)

http://www.lathamtimber.co.uk/

hth

edit: For what you're building, WISA spruce ply may the the ticket, I use loads of it for structural applications - a good choice environmentally too.