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Hey Wayne, I was going to email you with this question but thought it might serve better to have all the board bros in on it. I know a few of the builders on the Frugal Horn and DIY sites have been giving Bamboo Plywood high praise for use in building their cabinets. Have you, or any others experimented with using this in your cabinets? The stuff is a little pricey but I really like the looks of the few various styles that I have seen at my lumber store. When factoring in the cost and time to do a nice veneered finish on Baltic Birch, the Bamboo Ply would not be a whole lot more of an expense. With the traditional "butt" fit on the panels, the end grain on the Bamboo would give a nice look, at least to my eyes. Check out some of the looks the stuff comes in: http://www.calibamboo.com/bambooplywood.html?gclid=CNXsr8L3zboCFcYRMwod-CcAXA http://www.woodistry.com/articles/BambooPlywood.htm
I've never used bamboo plywood. But I can tell you this for sure - It isn't the base wood you need to be concerned with, other than its tendency to form knots. The main thing to pay attention to is the adhesive and construction technique, specifically, what happens when there are voids in the laminations that are pressed together. Baltic birch is superior not because birch is good but because they use several thin laminations pressed together with enough adhesive it squishes into any voids that may be present and fills them completely. This makes a truly void-free product, and that's the most important thing. Marine grade plywood is also built to be free of defects. Most plywood products use a fewer number of thicker sheets, and where there are voids, they are not filled in with adhesive. So inevitably, debris breaks off inside the void, and is trapped, vibrating with the music. Consequently, most speakers made out of plywood buzz, sometimes immediately but sometimes not until a few months or years have passed, when debris breaks off and begins to buzz. Once a plywood cabinet begins to buzz, it is generally unsalvageable. Some people try to find the void, drill into it and inject adhesive, but the likelihood is there are multiple voids in any cabinet made with plywood having thick plys. So for this reason, I've always chosen either marine grade plywood or baltic birch, both of which are known to have fewer defects because of their construction technique.
Yes, the way that BB is constructed is what makes it such a good material for cabinet material. I do not know a ton about the Bamboo Plywood but from what I have read and the bit that I have seen in person it also appears to be very well made with virtually no voids. It is definitely very hard and stable stuff, much heavier to lift than the same size sheet of BB. It would be very interesting to see if there would be any sonic difference with a BB cabinet next to a BP one. Anybody else out there trying Bamboo Ply?
Hi there, Bamboo utilize is more grounded and harder wearing than most hardwoods.The multi layers are cross-overlaid and heat squeezed together to give dependability and forestall twisting, making bamboo employ 3-4 times all the more dimensionally stable then Oak. Overlaid bamboo pressed wood is produced using level rectangular bamboo strips that are cut from the bamboo stem. check out some stuffs of bamboo flooring. Bamboo Plywood