Veneer over solid core question

[Mark Gibney]

What wood would be best to use as the core of veneered table legs?

The legs will be tapered from 3" at the top to 2" at the bottom.
The veneer is bamboo I harvested from plywood and will be about 1/8" thick.

My concern is that I don't think the bamboo will have any seasonal movement, but the wood core will move, even if very little.

Looking at Wood-Database I see that Red Oak moves the least of the regular American hardwoods, 4% radially, 8.6% tangentially.

Compare that to White Oak 5.6 and 10.5%
Beech 5.5 and 11.9%
Hard Maple 4.8 and 9.9%

Opinions welcome!

thanks, Mark

[Mel Fulks]

North Eastern White Pine is good . Was used a lot for Federal furniture . Stable and easy to work. But anything that’s been kiln dried
would be okay.

[Richard Coers]

You are gluing grass to wood, I believe you will make a mistake assuming the bamboo won't expand or contract.

[John Kananis]

I like white pine, poplar and yellow pine (is pretty ok). In that order.

[Mark Gibney]

Richard, my understanding is the bamboo is very full of epoxy type glue and doesn’t move. Of course I don’t definitively know that.
Thanks John, poplar sounds good.

What about making the blank from 3/4” Baltic birch plywood ?
Crazy or good idea?

[Kevin Jenness]

Cherry is a good alternative (7.1% tangential and 3.7% radial shrinkage from green) as is walnut (7.8% and 5.5%) although poplar is cheaper and should serve well.

[John Kananis]

If you can use bb, that's always nice but you're making legs, no? It's obviously the most stable. Lightweight (or normal) mdf is also commonly used under veneer.

[John TenEyck]

My bamboo floor moved a lot, enough that the manufacture went to great lengths to make sure you left enough gap around the edges, warned you about pinning it down with heavy pieces of furniture, etc. I take that to mean you could probably use most any hardwood as a substrate. I'd choose poplar or soft maple, though white pine would be good, too, just like more expensive.

John

[Richard Coers]

I'm very skeptical that they put every strip in a pressure vessel and infuse it with resin. The only adhesive I've seen them use in videos is a heat set under plattens.

[Tom Bender]

How stiff is this bamboo plywood? How about making the legs hollow? Two thicknesses of 1/8" plywood may be strong enough.

[Jamie Buxton]

Here's a web site with info about the hygroscopic expansion of bamboo. https://www.oriental-bamboo.co.za/faq/moisture-content-calculate-expansion-of-bamboo.html