Posted by Wayne Parham [ 65.69.120.152 ] on September 24, 2005 at 13:44:50:
In Reply to: Re:Not plywood posted by Bill Epstein on September 24, 2005 at 12:59:00:
That's good info, thanks. I bought several sheets of Baltic Birch recently and it is just as you described, real pretty on one side but footballs everywhere on the other. The sheets have several plies and are very strong and void free. I could tell they are Russian, because each has the letters "ФК" stamped in green ink.
I like MDF because it is so inert, like a rock. But it isn't very strong really, you can chip edges pretty easy and it has very poor water resistance. Soaks up humidity like a sponge and grows like one too. Plywood is stronger, but you have to find good stuff that doesn't have voids. It's not really the voids I'm worried about so much as it is the debris that can be caught inside the void. That and the possibility of two laminates buzzing together.
One other thing is the use of fasteners. If screws are driven into plywood edges, they will separate the plies and make a void. You can get away with this on solid hardwood stock, but not plywood. If a screw must be driven into a plywood sheet on edge, a pilot hole should be drilled first, so that the shank passes easily and only the threads bite into the wood. That will help prevent separating the plies.
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