Baltic birch plywood yield

[Mike Berrevoets]

I'm making a bunch (24) of drawers out of Baltic birch ply. The sheets are 60" by 60". Drawers are about 21" deep and most of the drawers are wide so not much chance to use up the left over from cutting two 21" lengths from each strip. If I run the direction of the grain like normal I'm going to have a 18" by 60" leftover that is mostly unusable. Any reason why I shouldn't run the grain vertically for either the front or back of the drawers just to use up some of the leftover?

I'm thinking this is just an aesthetics issue and I doubt anyone but me will ever notice. But, maybe it is a terrible idea.

[eugene thomas]

I would say it depends on if drawers for shop cabinets or household cabinets.

[John TenEyck]

Structurally, no problem, run the grain any way you want. Aesthetically, however, it will look poor. With a false front drawer you could get away with running the inner front piece the other way because it will seldom or never be seen. Otherwise, I wouldn't do it except for shop drawers.

John

[Bill Orbine]

Is it for yourself or are you going cheap on your client?

[Mike Berrevoets]

These are kitchen cabinet drawers for our own house. I'll have to see how the backs and sides layout. some drawers are pretty wide so i I can probably use up most of the 60" by cutting a back and a side out of the strip.

[johnny means]

I would switch to a 19 3/4 inch drawer height. Will anything fall out if your drawers are a little shorter?

[Jamie Buxton]

If you haven't already bought the 5'x5' Baltic birch, there are sources for 4'x8' sheets of the stuff. That might lay out your project a bit better. My dealers call it Finn ply, or Latvian birch.

[Von Bickley]

Structurally, no problem...... Appearance, all of the drawers in my house are painted white, even the cabinets that are stained.

Go for it......

[Kent A Bathurst]

I'm thinking this is just an aesthetics issue and I doubt anyone but me will ever notice. But, maybe it is a terrible idea.
1. Yes, it is.
2. No they won't. And after 6 months, you won't either.
3. Nope. Smart. Plus - what in the heck will you do with all those offcuts?

[Bill Adamsen]

As Jamie suggested, check your local suppliers for alternative dimensions. My local suppliers source from the same suppliers in both 4x8 and 5x5 and the material itself is interchangeable. An 18 x 60 piece of Baltic birch always finds a quick home as a jig in my shop.

[Mike Berrevoets]

I started figuring out the cut list based on the drawer widths and it isn't quite as bad as I thought. I have some pretty wide drawers which means those lengths doubled up on the strip means less waste at the end. I'm still going to have a bunch of small Baltic birch cut offs and I just can't bring myself to toss those no matter how small because they are great for jigs. Tossing regular plywood cut offs is no problem but there is just something about Baltic birch to me...

But now my dilemma is the drawer bottoms which is worse than than sides! I bought a few sheets of 3/8 Baltic birch since the drawers will be wide and I wanted something more than 1/4" thick on the bottom because some drawers will have pots and pans. (Our kitchen will be all drawers on the bottom, that's what the wife asked for)

60 by 60 panels. Drawer length (front to back) is 21" to fit the Blum tandem glides. Most of the drawers are more than 20" wide. That means I will get at most 4 bottoms out of each sheet. Even if I wanted, I couldn't turn the leftovers sideways and run the grain on the bottom side to side. (Not that I would run the grain side to side on the bottom)

i found a source for 4 by 8 sheets of Baltic birch. That would get me four 21" strips but at most I'd get 2 bottoms out of each strip because the panel is only 4' wide. So, 8 bottoms per 4 by 8 sheet. And the 4 by 8 sheets cost more per square foot at this source. Ugh, I can't win. :)

I guess I'm finding out why the cabinet manufacturers use standard sizes.

Oh well, live and learn.

[Jamie Buxton]

I generally make drawer bottoms from quarter inch baltic birch. For lightly-loaded or small drawers, that's fine. For bigger drawers, I laminate off-cuts to the underside of the bottom, so they become 1/2" thick. I use undermount slides, so I don't run the lower layer all the way to the edges. It is just kinda glued in the middle. It doesn't matter if it is a particular size, or particularly accurate. It still reinforces the bottom a great deal.

[John TenEyck]

Even if I wanted, I couldn't turn the leftovers sideways and run the grain on the bottom side to side. (Not that I would run the grain side to side on the bottom)



With solid wood bottoms you would run the grain side to side. I orient plywood bottoms the same way.

John

[Bill Adamsen]

My Luddite approach, unless slides don't permit, is to use solid pine for bottoms mounted as John notes above. You can get 1/2" pine innexpensively from most local sawyers if there is wane or other defect that discards stock as 3/4" (one by). I get beautiful wide material, join with biscuits if needed, and allow expansion at back. It requires milling to fit the 1/4 slots. It is strong, beautiful and traditional looking.

[Jack Lemley]

I have joined smaller pieces of ply much like I do solid wood to make a panel. I use my Festool Domino to join 1/2 and 3/4 ply with very good success. Alignment is key but the Domino is spot on. I also own and have used the Dowelmax for the same process and the joints are equally tight. Structural integrity is very good. The Domino is quicker but either way you can easily turn the 18"x 60" off cuts into 36" by 60" offcuts. I wouldn't hesitate to do it on my own kitchen cabinets primarily because the joints are tight and if you are running long grain to long grain on BB the joints will often disappear to everyone but you (only because you did the joining). The BB veneer is thick enough to allow for sufficient sanding in the even you have a slight misalignment here or there.

Jack