Birch Plywood or Veneered MDF

Ro-76

Hi,

I'm looking to build a new desk and shelving for a spare bedroom/study. I have build a good few things, reasonably complicated with MDF, painted afterward. Now I'm planning to use something with a natural wood finish and varnish it. I loke the idea of making the desk from birch plywood with the edges exposed and varnished. I like the laminated edge look that you sometimes see on office furniture, and the prospect of not having to glue or iron on edging on the MDF appeals to me.

I have never worked with plywood before and realy would kile to know if it is as easy or easier to work with as MDF. I do not intend any fancy roution, except maybe routing grooves to make drawer frames. Is it easy to route? Will my edging idea work out in prtactice?

Thanks,

Ro

JoeB-

Hi

If you're using veneered plywood I'd say it should be no more difficult than veneeed MDF, you'll just have to watch out for chipping out when cross cutting as you'll probably be using a circular saw... also plywood can suffer from voids at the edges but it's not too bad.

Exposed plywood edges can look great as you say, just varnished up... the furniture below was made by a non professional that exact way...

click pictures for larger pictures...

Moderator - links removed - see pictures below.


Cheers
Joe

Ro-76

JoeBallantine wrote:

Hi

If you're using veneered plywood I'd say it should be no more difficult than veneeed MDF, you'll just have to watch out for chipping out when cross cutting as you'll probably be using a circular saw... also plywood can suffer from voids at the edges but it's not too bad.

Exposed plywood edges can look great as you say, just varnished up... the furniture below was made by a non professional that exact way...

Mod - as above

Cheers
Joe

Thanks for the great advice. I had thought about the chipping issue, and what I'll probably do is get the more important bits cut on a table saw to size when I buy the wood, and just cut the less visable bits myself, like the drawer carcases etc.

Thanks

Ro

JoeB-

I moved these links from earlier posts...