Making Plywood look good

paddylonglegs

Hi,

I want to build a piece of furniture using plywood stacked to create a feature of its sandwiched edge.Similar to below.



I plan on sticking these together with wood glue and clamps (any other ideas then please recommend) and then sanding down to make them appear to be one piece, but I would like to know is there a way of laquering,polishing, or finishing it in any other way so that I can make the plywood edge stand out?

Thanks for any info

Qwerty?

Just make sure you use Birch Plywood as it's a dense plywood so the edges look very well, and it takes laquer/varnish well. They should stand out when finished. It would be a lot brighter than the photo you have though.

birchply.jpg

galwaydude18

Ya use birch plywood. Ordinary plywood will contain voids, knots etc.. and birch ply wont.. It's the best quality but ya expect to pay at least €150 for a 8x4 18mm sheet

Fingalian

The ends of that sofa look pretty thick 4-6''? which could mean 8-12 laminations( depending on thickness of ply).I'd be inclined to glue and screw the inner cores together with plasterboard screws, and then glue and clamp on the 2 outerskins and hide the screws.That way you're not killing yourself with a big glue up.Are you familiar with using clamping cauls? Its going to pretty heavy furniture too unless you get into torsion box construction.

JoeB-

Birch Ply need not be too expensive...

Noyeks have Chinese Birch Ply, probably not Birch throughout, some other cheaper timber in the interior, also voids etc... it may be as cheap as 50 to 60 to a non trade user.

Strahan Timber sell Norwegian (or Scandinavian somewhere) Birch ply, this is solid Birch throughout... having used 10 panels or so I can say that there are some voids, just far less than normal... there are also repairs on the faces, (called scotchmen possibly, they look like little butterflies). This will be more expensive, maybe 80 to 110 per sheet. (8' x 4' x 18mm)

Glueing up all the pieces is slightly easier than it sounds.... it may be hard to achieve a tight fit without heavy clamps... if you picture is mass produced they may have used a 20 ton press or something...

(I have seen second have presses on sale from Scott & Sargeant of 150 tons pressure and more, this is probably not for woodwork but it shows what's available)

Cheers

paddylonglegs

Fingalian wrote: »

The ends of that sofa look pretty thick 4-6''? which could mean 8-12 laminations( depending on thickness of ply).I'd be inclined to glue and screw the inner cores together with plasterboard screws, and then glue and clamp on the 2 outerskins and hide the screws.That way you're not killing yourself with a big glue up.Are you familiar with using clamping cauls? Its going to pretty heavy furniture too unless you get into torsion box construction.

Thanks for the info lads.Fingalian I would actually just be gluing two pieces together.I have used clamps alright,what are cauls though?

Would you recommend a clear lacqure for this work?I would like to just make the ply stand out but don't want to stain it.

Thanks for the info

paddylonglegs

JoeBallantine wrote: »

Birch Ply need not be too expensive...

Noyeks have Chinese Birch Ply, probably not Birch throughout, some other cheaper timber in the interior, also voids etc... it may be as cheap as 50 to 60 to a non trade user.

Strahan Timber sell Norwegian (or Scandinavian somewhere) Birch ply, this is solid Birch throughout... having used 10 panels or so I can say that there are some voids, just far less than normal... there are also repairs on the faces, (called scotchmen possibly, they look like little butterflies). This will be more expensive, maybe 80 to 110 per sheet. (8' x 4' x 18mm)

Glueing up all the pieces is slightly easier than it sounds.... it may be hard to achieve a tight fit without heavy clamps... if you picture is mass produced they may have used a 20 ton press or something...

(I have seen second have presses on sale from Scott & Sargeant of 150 tons pressure and more, this is probably not for woodwork but it shows what's available)

Cheers

Thanks Joe,

Those places you are talking about,are they based in dublin?I might go and check what they have got.

Fingalian

Cauls are bits of wood that extend the reach of your clamps. Say the top of your sofa there is 20''wide, if you use two F clamps or C clamps on either side you could have a bit in the middle with no clamping pressure on it.If you connect the two clamps with a bit of wood, you can apply pressure to the middle.You can also use playing cards as shims under the caul to apply pressure at specific areas.

paddylonglegs

Fingalian wrote: »

Cauls are bits of wood that extend the reach of your clamps. Say the top of your sofa there is 20''wide, if you use two F clamps or C clamps on either side you could have a bit in the middle with no clamping pressure on it.If you connect the two clamps with a bit of wood, you can apply pressure to the middle.You can also use playing cards as shims under the caul to apply pressure at specific areas.

Ah i know what you mean.yeah I will need them as the surfeace will be quite large

Mellor

Is that ply in the furnature in the OP??

bauderline

Its a variant of it at least as far as I can tell.

B.

JoeB-

It looks like that blockboard stuff...

It's a bit like ply except that it might have 3mm outer faces and 12mm thick x 40mm wide or so strips in the interior (so 3ply in total). I have never really used it although I have seen it used in older work, fitted wardrobes for example. I would have thought that this type of construction would produce a stable panel with few voids.

I saw it for sale somewhere recently, but I can't remember where.. it may have been flooring which had a substrate made in this way.

Cheers

Mellor

JoeBallantine wrote: »

It looks like that blockboard stuff...

It's a bit like ply except that it might have 3mm outer faces and 12mm thick x 40mm wide or so strips in the interior (so 3ply in total). I have never really used it although I have seen it used in older work, fitted wardrobes for example. I would have thought that this type of construction would produce a stable panel with few voids.

I saw it for sale somewhere recently, but I can't remember where.. it may have been flooring which had a substrate made in this way.

Cheers

I don't think its block board or ply.


Guessing the scale of it, i'd say each "layer" is 25m or so. This is far too big for ply. And each is too wide for blockboard.
It looks like laminated solid timber to me. The effect is very different to ply. I don't think the pics highlight it.

S.L.F

The boards used look like lamin board to me.

here are the specs on it.

When I was starting my apprenticeship many years ago it was the board we heard about but never used, as it was too expensive.