Good article

 

I have given up on import plywood.  I have found the face veneers super thin and the interior veneers sloppily laid, or as I say,5-12 layer plywood -- lots of voids, layers that have the consistency of straw, and overlaps everywhere.  And warps like crazy.  Life is too short to be counteracting all those problems.

 

I do use some BCX (B-C grade exterior) plywood for shop projects and it seems to work well.

 

A few years ago, I got some pre-finished plywood for the carcass of cabinets (where the outsides would not be seen as they fit into a recess).  That seemed to work well.

 

I got some plywood with the MDF core from a guy who was closing his commercial shop.  I've used a bit of it.  It seems flat and good but really heavy.

 

I'm about to try some doors to be painted with MDF panels, we'll have to see how that works.

 

 

Looking forward to hearing the results. I was able to get some pretty nice plywood from the local planning mill but that was before the pandemic. 

There was some I saw (somewhere) that had 3 veneer plys in the center, then a 1/8" MDF layer on each side, then the finish veneer. Wherever I was, I asked why would they do that. The answer was that the MDF makes for a much smoother surface for the finish veneer to be glued onto. Well, I guess so...but it didn't look that much smoother to me. But like you I've given up on imported plywood....at least if it's at all possible. I did use once to build a prototype (only time I've done that) of a TV cabinet I wanted to make. The prototype was to ensure I got the shelf angles correct, after that it become burn pile fodder. For anything else I try to stick with cabinet grade plywood from States Industries or Columbia Forest products.

There is a mdf core used for highway signs. Don’t remember what it is called but about the only place to find is cabinet shops. This is probably the same stuff they use in furniture and call it solid wood. Heavy as all get out.

Edited October 4, 20214 yr by Gerald

I've never heard of that Gerald...are you thinking of MDO? Seems like MDF anything for outside use would be a very bad idea.

Very timely (for me) article.  Thanks Keith.

Yes its MDO. I have used it most recently in the outer doors for my garage. I used 1/2" mdo but it still did a little potato chipping. I have had nothing but trouble with plywood with all the problems listed previously so I have gone to using solid wood. Its a bit of a pain timewise but the results are much better. I'm using poplar and soft maple more frequently these days. With the rising cost of the plywood poplar is is the same price or even cheaper in some cases. The ceiling tiles in the media room are the latest example. I tried to find 1\2" black walnut plywood and when I did it was outrageously expensive and very unstable stuff. The better option turned out to be laminating black walnut to the soft maple by sandwiching a piece of black walnut between two pieces of soft maple and then using the bandsaw to split the laminated block down the middle of the black walnut, gluing the halves together to make a bookmatched ceiling tile. Its a real pain in the butt to do timewise and bandsaw blade wise but the results are better. This must be driving the commercial cabinet guys crazy. The mdf core ply is very stable but heavy and expensive. But the micro thin veneers make it tough to work with. Veneers that are that thin require much more care in cutting and edgebanding which equates to more labor and cost. Then there is the mdf dust which is downright nasty and requires above average dust collection to be safe. 

11 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

I've never heard of that Gerald...are you thinking of MDO? Seems like MDF anything for outside use would be a very bad idea.

It was my understanding that MDO is the finished product but the core is MDF. Could be wrong and will do some research 

MDO has a high resin count and a ply core so apparently not mdf.