I am building a set of face frame book shelves, and plan to use maple for the face frames and 3/4" plywood for the cases and shelves. Everything will be painted white, so the type of wood used on the plywood faces is only important as far as creating a smooth looking finish and being easy to work with. I figure baltic birch would work just fine, but I am looking for advice on the best/other options. Thanks!
Kevin in Colorado
Any hardwood veneer faced plywood should work well. You will likely have to apply a first coat and then sand to remove the fuzzies. I've painted birch faced plywood from the Borgs with no problems. Don't use construction grade plywood as the grain will always show through.
For built-ins which will be painted, I use 3/4" C-2 maple plywood. It has a rotary-cut front face, and softwood core. It sells for about $55 per sheet around here. Baltic-birch style plywood is overkill. (And DO NOT use the cheap multi-ply stuff from the Borgs that looks a bit like baltic birch. The core plies are something that smell like horse urine, and the stuff will twist and warp if you look at it funny.) For for edgebanding or faceframes, I generally use poplar. But if you want a little more ding resistance at a slightly higher cost, maple works. In some parts of the country, soft maple is significantly less expensive than hard maple, but it really is as hard.
Thanks guys. And FYI, it will be soft maple which is pretty reasonable here.
For painted millwork I often use MDO which has the benefit of being stocked at local lumberyards in my neck of the woods. It is very strong (typically fir layers) and made with waterproof glue with an exterior rating. The surface is completely flat, thicker than big box ply top veneer, and easily painted without sanding. It mills nicely though I have found it is sensitive to blade exit geometry ... and I do shelf pin holes with a router without tearing. Like most sheet stock, it requires some sort of edging. Soft maple would be perfect (I have also done poplar), but I have also done wrapped miter and V-groove so that the paper goes up just about to the edge. Because it is exterior rated it might be more expensive than big box birch veneer. But is is a very sound product.
All good choices for shelves. But if they are going to be real BOOK shelves ,I prefer solid wood. Cheap knotty wood is ok if they are for books. Some old book cases have cheap wood with fine wood edge facing. Plywood shelves are strong enough for books at 24 inch lengths ,and that gives the cases a nice vertical look.
Mel brings up a great point ... solid wood (especially if it is thicker) is stronger and may be a good solution for you especially if deflection is an important criteria. Use the woodbin "sagulator" to figure out what you need for your span to get deflection into the zone you are comfortable with.
http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator/
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Im with Mel on solid wood shelves. The rest is really up to you. My preferred shelf is 3/4 pine or poplar (for paint) with a rabbeted 1.5 - 2 face applied for stability. If you're loading with real books, you will want it. Although I hate the dust it creates, and it's heavy, the price is right and the finish is great on MDF for the cabinets themselves. I prefer pine or poplar for the face frames. Last set I did below for illustration.</p>
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Sorry for grainy pics and a post that looks like wingdings. Not sure why my quotes and apostrophes are displaying that way. Dropping grammar and punctuation in favor of readability...</p>
+1 for MDO.
Good ideas, thanks. As far as shelves, we will have about a 26" max span, and I was planning on using rabbeted 1.5" maple on the face or rear to stiffen them.
Yes, solid wood shelves. Just remembered that those shelves in the picture above were solid wood. Inch and an eighth thick by ten inches deep and forty-two inch span. Soft maple. Sagulator results below.