Need advise making 1/8" plywood

[john hejmanowski]

So, I got an RV fridge for a song for the Airstream. It works great. However, the fridge needs a 1/8" x 24"x36 door panel and a smaller one. Dometic no longer makes this panel and has nothing larger that could be cut down to size. The one source I can find for 1/8" plywood wants $450. That is a bit much. I am thinking to make my own, but, how to do it?

I have some cherry that I think to slice into 1/16" x 6" wide strips and glue two layers at 90 degrees.

Do I glue both sides?

I have no vacuum press so I will use some dead weights.

Ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks. John H

[Jeff Roltgen]

Should be 3 layers for balance, if you go the veneer route.
Would it look strange to put a shallow, raised panel there? Plane to 3/8 to 1/2" thick, use any raised panel or cove bit you have on hand to form and reduce edge thickness to 1/8" = you've got your target edge thickness for panel retainer brackets, a panel that is much more stable, and no adventures in veneering with limited implements.
Even simpler: a short rabbet at the edges if a more contemporary look is preferred over a raised-panel sweep.

jeff

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Making your own would be cool! I would think about using 3 plys.
1/8 plywood is usually available.

484953

[Jim Becker]

Consider veneering some other kind of thin panel as an alternative to "plywood". It will likely be "better behaved" than trying to glue up your own multilayer construction and as Jeff mentioned, you'd likely want at least three layers anyway. A thin substrate veneered with nice material on the front to match the Airstream interior and a simple backer veneer on the back side will do the job. For something that small, you don't need a fancy veneer system...just some simple plattens made from MDF and a bunch of cauls and clamps.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Two ply veneer is a nice product and is available in several species. It ships rolled up. The image is oak and Mahogany. Two layers glued together will be around 1/8. I think this is from Rockler.

484954
looking again this is 3 ply Oak, Fiber, Mahogany. Two layers without glue = .085. It might be too thin.

[Dan Cameron]

So, I got an RV fridge for a song for the Airstream. It works great. However, the fridge needs a 1/8" x 24"x36 door panel and a smaller one. Dometic no longer makes this panel and has nothing larger that could be cut down to size. The one source I can find for 1/8" plywood wants $450. That is a bit much. I am thinking to make my own, but, how to do it?

I have some cherry that I think to slice into 1/16" x 6" wide strips and glue two layers at 90 degrees.

Do I glue both sides?

I have no vacuum press so I will use some dead weights.

Ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks. John H

Home Depot sells 1/8 "utility panels" for about $17. 3ply, mystery wood.

[Frederick Skelly]

Home Depot sells 1/8 "utility panels" for about $17. 3ply, mystery wood.

I was just about to say the same. Go to the cabinet section. They sell a veneered plywood intended for covering an exposed side of their cabinets.

[Walter Plummer]

Aircraft spruce has plywood starting at 1/64" up. https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/wppages/finnishbirch.php

[john hejmanowski]

Gentlemen, thanks. I will check out buying the baltic birch.

[John TenEyck]

I have been making my own multi-ply walnut plywood for a wood gear clock project. Some of the parts are only 2 mm thick, that's about 0.080". For that one I used 3 layers of veneer. Some others are 3, 5, and 8 mm thick. For those I'm using 5 layers. I edge glue the veneer first to get the layers as wide as I need. Then I put the layers in the vacuum bag using TB II and leave them for about 2 hours. Then I remove it from the bag and clamp it between 3/4" thick plywood with some window screen in between to facilitate drying. Even the 2 mm stuff is amazingly rigid, and of course stable because it's plywood.

If I didn't have a vacuum press, I'd lay the veneer between a couple of layers of plywood on each side and clamp it up with some thick cauls on both sides, or down onto my bench top with cauls just on top. OP, your project is very doable using commercial veneer, even easier if you can slice your own and drum sand it to whatever thickness is needed.

John

[Tom Bender]

Definitely 3 or more plys, 2 plys will curl

How about just using 2 sheets of laminate back to back?

[Lee Schierer]

Have you tried this source (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Utility-Panel-Common-1-8-in-x-4-ft-x-8-ft-Actual-0-106-in-x-48-in-x-96-in-833096/100543684)?

[Alex Zeller]

I've made thin plywood using titebond 2. I had some skate board veneer sheets (1/16) that I glued together. The titebond has water in it so the wood wanted to expand. The panels were small so I just put some steel blocks from my hydraulic press on top of them. Over all they came out nice. Once the titebond dried the panels were flat. I did exactly what you asked about, grains going opposite direction. But they went into a mission style frame so that holds them from warping (but I don't think they will).

[john hejmanowski]

with veneer, or making my own plywood, do you glue one side or both sides?

[Jim Becker]

with veneer, or making my own plywood, do you glue one side or both sides?
Balance is important when you are veneering a panel substrate...as I noted above,"good stuff" on the show side and backer veneer on the non-show side. So it's a sandwich with the veneer as the "bread" and the substrate of your choice as the "peanutbutter".

[Bryan Lisowski]

As to your question of whether to glue 1 side or both, if you take Jim’s sandwich visual, glue on the internal sides of both pieces of bread should be enough, but it’s not going to hurt if you apply glue to both sides of the substrate. Make the panel bigger than you need then cut to final size to handle the squeeze out.

[john hejmanowski]

okay. thanks.

[John TenEyck]

I use a plastic autobody spreader and cut small notches in the business end with a hacksaw about 1/16" deep, spaced about 1/8" apart. Using that with Titebond leaves just the right amount of glue on one side to bond two pieces together. This is the same process one uses to glue veneer onto a thick substrate. You apply glue only to the substrate. You know you have the right amount of glue on when you see little squeeze out bubbles along the edges of the workpiece when it comes out of the clamps. If you have a continuous bead of excess glue, you applied too much; if you see no squeeze out you applied too little.

John

[Richard Coers]

Used to be able to buy 4'x8' 1/8"door skins at my hardwood supplier, no idea if they still sell them, but I have several sheets in my rack. Also 1/8" plywood is very commonly used by kitchen cabinet refacers. If you have a company around doing that, good chance they will sell you a cutoff.

[Alex Zeller]

I put glue on both sides and used a roller to evenly spread it out. I also made the sheets oversized so I didn't have to worry about each piece of plywood was perfectly aligned on each edge.

[Mike King]

If using a substrate (say MDF), then you'd apply glue to one side of the substrate, stack the veneer on top, flip the sandwich, then apply glue to the substrate (reverse side from the side you already applied glue to), stack the veneer on top, then place in the press, clamps, or vacuum bag.

If making plywood, apply glue to one side of two of the three veneers, orient the grain at 90 degrees.

Mike

[James Baldwin]

I've been using it on our overhead camper rebuild. Kinda looks like Laun. It's slightly under 1/8 inch but works. Jim

[johnny means]

I think making a plywood panel is going to be more challenging than you might think. Did you consider if you should use ⅛" ply? Many other materials come in that thickness.

[john hejmanowski]

So I ended up getting some 1/8" baltic birch at Owl Hardwoods. And saw some sapelle (first time I ever saw that stuff. Wow.). Then made some 0.054" sapelle veneer and glued it to the baltic birch. That sapelle sure is pretty. I am now almost 3/16" versus the specified 1/8" but it seems to fit.

Thanks everyone.

John H

[mike calabrese]

Not sure exactly what you are looking for to maintain the original quality but some of the stuff below may help
You can buy 1/8 plywood from several sources including aircraft supply and marine supply sources.
This link is just one source
https://www.aircraftspruce.com/categories/building_materials/bm/menus/wp/plywood.html
They list 1/8 x 4 x 4 at $89.00
here are some other sources
https://www.wicksaircraft.com/c/aircraft-plywood/
https://aircraftplywood.com
mike calabrese