Ply is fairly stable depending on the thickness ie anything under 19mm (for furniture) is a bit useless unless housed in a frame
Also makes a difference how it's stored; flat is best, maybe with a small amount of weight on top
MDF is good but again how it is stored up until the time you use it is important...again for furniture 19 mm is most commonly used
If laminating the surface make sure as much as possible that both sides are equal ie the laminate on the outside should be balanced on the inside with laminate of equal thickness, or as near as you can get
Not looking to laminate, just oil both sides. Generally available stuff here is 18mm birch or 20mm poplar ply, we use the birch some of which can be less than 17mm thick (apparently within tolerance)
We're looking to show the ply bands on the edge, would (e.g.) a 12mm panel inset into a 24mm ply frame (2x12mm glued) be more stable than 18mm straight??
mousjoos
Joined: 05 Jun 2006 Posts: 1986 Location: VERY Sunny SW France
Posted: Wed May 13, 15 4:12 pm Post subject:
In theory there's no reason why not; extra care needs to be taken when jointing ply eg with a biscuit jointer as the core is not homogenous (is that the right word?) like MDF
Depending on the overall size of the door, a frame of 24 (glued or otherwise) with a panel of 12 should be fine
I think you mentioned a size of 1800x600, if so try to incorporate a cross rail that will divide the panel(s)
Standard wooden framework for a kitchen door is generally 65mm wide, so if your design will stand it, make this the minimum...top & bottom cross rails can be that size, but a middle rail 12-15 mm wider adds a smidge more stability
We managed to finish the laundry room (with the copper pipe handles) but I don't seem to have any pics so here's the latest bedside that we've just completed. Still all ply, but we are making a cherry coffee table for my niece soon (from bits of left over stair treads).
Click to see full size image
Click to see full size image
Not our most succesful piece, we found it very difficult to keep the stacked ply sides straight in clamping, we should really have gone oversized and thicknessed to size.
sean Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 42219 Location: North Devon
Not our most succesful piece, we found it very difficult to keep the stacked ply sides straight in clamping, we should really have gone oversized and thicknessed to size.
Surely you mean 'We decided to go for the hand-crafted artisanal look with this piece.'
For drawer sides whether dovetailed or not, try to use "drawer side ply"...it's not generally called that outside the trade, but is uni directional ply which means edges can be sanded without the need to veneer them first
Drawer sides should be at least a couple of millimetres wider than the front to allow fitting, making sure that all the top edges are flush...DSP also planes well making fitting easy
Drawer sides should be at least a couple of millimetres wider than the front to allow fitting, making sure that all the top edges are flush...DSP also planes well making fitting easy
Sorry, not quite with you there, I know it's going to be difficult to explain on t'internet but is tehre a diagram or something you could point me at? Would love to be better at drawers