Making plywood look what it ain't

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Hi All, I'm going to make some bookcases which will be built in. Also I'll be making an entertainment unit, one of those low ones for an HDTV. I'm going to use hardwood plywood for this but I'm concerned the outcome will look too "plywoody" . Any ideas to dress up these plywood projects to make them look more interesting? Thanks.

[Curt Harms]

Hi All, I'm going to make some bookcases which will be built in. Also I'll be making an entertainment unit, one of those low ones for an HDTV. I'm going to use hardwood plywood for this but I'm concerned the outcome will look too "plywoody" . Any ideas to dress up these plywood projects to make them look more interesting? Thanks.

Hi Alan

Plywood looks like plywood because it's rotary cut. If You can find a non-borg plywood source, You should be able to find plywood thats flat saw, rift sawn, quarter sawn or whatever. It shouldn't look "plywoody", it also probably won't be cheap:eek:

HTH

Curt

[Jamie Buxton]

One big issue is to avoid rotary-cut veneer on the show faces. Rotary-cut is the least-expensive way to slice veneer, but it doesn't look like "real wood" to my eye. The grain patterns don't look right. Rotary-cut is often called "one-piece face" in lumber dealers. Instead, you're looking for stuff which would be called plain-sawn or plain-sliced.

[Brian Kerley]

Well, what I did was instead of trying to hide it, I showed off the edging. I also added some big casters and some sliding resin doors. It gave it a cool modern/industrial look....unless that's not what you are going for.

[Bob Feeser]

Sometimes plywoody is not all that bad. If you use it in combination with solid wood edging, and tops. It just adds another dimension. This is a base I created to mount my Dads old contractors saw on. It is Home Depot cabinet grade ply, which I did have to dig down into the pile to find it though.
http://inlinethumb32.webshots.com/14303/2183760210100733997S600x600Q85.jpg

[JayStPeter]

I got some cherry plywood that was actually 6" bookmatched veneer. It looked great. Unfortunately, the veneer was so thin I had lots of problems with it.

Jay

[Joe Chritz]

Grab some 1/4 sawn plywood at a real lumber place.

WARNING! Be sitting down when you get the bill. Last stuff I bought (I didn't pay thankfully) was some cherry and it was just shy of $100 a sheet. Still less then making raised panel sides out of 1/4 sawn red oak though.

You can get plywood in just about anything you can imagine.

Joe

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Thanks all for your replies. I like the ideas here and will incorporate them in the projects. But man do I like just using solid wood. I just don't have the equipment here to do it. Thanks again.

[Jamie Buxton]

A useful design approach is to avoid letting people see the 3/4" thickness. Put a lumber edge on the plywood so that it looks thicker -- like an inch or an inch and a quarter.

[Jim Becker]

Quality veneer plywood can't be told from solid boards...

[M Toupin]

Look for "flat sawn" ply which will look like individual boards glued edge to edge rather than one large sheet. You'll need to find a sheet goods distributer like the Worth Group http://www.hardwoodgroup.com. They have a location in Raleigh you might try. Furniture grade ply is more expensive than the junk at the borg so get ready for a bit of sticker shock. The price is well worth the end product though, it looks a lot nicer and it's a lot better quality.

Mike

[Alan Tolchinsky]

I'm still monitoring this thread. Thanks for the added input. It looks like the better plywood is the way to go.

[Jamie Buxton]

Quality veneer plywood can't be told from solid boards...

C'mon, Jim, you know better than that. For instance, boards have ends, with end grain. Plywood does not. And when you put lumber edging on plywood to cover the long-grain edges, any woodworker can see you're doing it. Plywood is a good material, and I use it a lot. But it can be disinguished from solid lumber.

[Jim Becker]

C'mon, Jim, you know better than that. For instance, boards have ends, with end grain. Plywood does not. And when you put lumber edging on plywood to cover the long-grain edges, any woodworker can see you're doing it. Plywood is a good material, and I use it a lot. But it can be disinguished from solid lumber.

Sorry, Jamie...you're taking my statement too literally, but that's my fault. I was only referring to the face veneers but didn't state that clearly enough.

[Jamie Buxton]

Sorry, Jamie...you're taking my statement too literally, but that's my fault. I was only referring to the face veneers but didn't state that clearly enough.


Okay, I'll mostly agree with you then.

However, I think I can see the difference between solid lumber and sliced veneer in some species. Black walnut is one example. I've built furniture where I mixed commercial plywood with bandsaw-veneered plywood and solid lumber. The bandsawn faces and the lumber look better than the sliced-veneer faces. The sliced face is okay, but just not as wonderful as the others. My theory is that the slicing process is so hard on the wood that it shows. There are other species where I don't see this effect -- for instance oak or maple.

[Peter Quadarella]

I'm new to all this, and have used some plywood recently. I have to say, I don't understand where plywood got its bad name. If it is made well and of good wood, and if it looks nice, isn't it superior to regular wood in almost every way? Dimensionally stable and extremely strong, what's with the general ill will against plywood (which I shared before I started woodworking)? Honestly, I am starting to wonder why all fine furniture doesn't use plywood wherever possible.

[Chris Friesen]

If it is made well and of good wood, and if it looks nice, isn't it superior to regular wood in almost every way?

It's not as strong as solid wood with the grain, but it's stronger cross-grain. For shelves, for instance, solid wood is substantially stronger.

It's difficult to do raised panels in plywood.

It's easy to sand through the face layers, and it's pretty well impossible to hand-plane it. (For some woods, planing just leaves it looking better than sanding.)

It's difficult to get hardwood ply thicker than 3/4", and it only comes in specific thicknesses. With solid wood you can use whatever thickness looks good.

It's hard to dovetail plywood.

The only real advantage of plywood is that it's dimensionally stable.

[Greg Funk]

The only real advantage of plywood is that it's dimensionally stable.
A few other advantages of plywood:
- Broader selection of high quality wood. Try buying enough Anigre for a bookcase at a local lumberyard.
- Generally less expensive than solid wood particularly for exotic selections.
- Faster to build with.
- Availability of sequenced matched and numbered veneers.
- Lighter. Important when you're are building a coffered ceiling overhead...

I'm sure there are a few other advantages but that's all I can think of for now.

Greg

[Bill Wyko]

One thing you'll find with veneered plywood is that you better be dead on in your joints. They give you no room for error. Sand just a little and you go right through it.

[Bert Johansen]

Re the Becker/Buxton discussion. I believe I read recently that the reason "sliced" plywood veneer doesn't finish well is because the log has to be soaked with water to make the slicer work efficiently, and the process of soaking it in water leaches out some color in the veneer. Hence it doesn't finish the same as sawn plywood. Anybody who has mixed solid wood and borg plywood in a project has seen the problem in the finishing process--it is darn hard to get them to match, and it takes some clever work with dyes. Not for the faint of heart . . .