Plyboo mid-project2

Comment

Comment by gdatomic on January 15, 2010 at 3:24pm

To clarify the imperfections...

The S&F drawing shows three ply's (2 veneer and a thick core of slats). In what we've received recently, outer dimensions have been fine. But, we'll have a 3-4" run where the slats are 1/2 the thickness and doubled up--- turning it into essentially 4 plys in that local area.

Comment by gdatomic on January 15, 2010 at 3:17pm

Joel -

I don't know exactly about Smith & Fong. Mine was sourced through Emerson Hardwoods here in Portland, OR. Most recent price was $160/sheet. About 4 years ago we paid $200 a sheet.

No major cutting problems. It's a hard wood, so take it slow. And, you'll need to be cautious about slight shred splintering of the veneer when cross-cutting. I've been cutting with a Festool TS55 and the cuts have been superb.

The sheets we received were slightly oversized (about 1/4" to 1/2" in each direction) and not quite squared. So, we had to establish our square as a first step. the depth is quite accurate.

The other thought I'll offer you is that there may be a few imperfections with plys and glue inside the board. From our work, they are MUCH less than plywood (meaning it's almost like working with 4x8 sheets of hardwood). But when there are imperfections, we've found a few where the inner sheet dimensions varied. And, a few where there were minor gaps. The gaps, though, tend to run along the slats and create 8 to 20 inch slight gaps.

It's not been a problem. But that's what we've experienced.

Comment by Joel Adams on January 7, 2010 at 7:42pm

That looks great. This is the product I have been looking at for a few tables. I'm curious if you had any issues cutting it and what the sheet ran you. I have not found any vendors that list pricing for the Smith&Fong PlyBoo.

Comment by gdatomic on October 13, 2009 at 5:06pm

These I'm leaving mostly sharp. I think they look better with the "squareness" of the design and the way the core of the board works. It's kind of a mid-century look (from a nearly mid-century guy...just don't tell the AARP). There are two exposed corners where there's danger of someone bumping into sharpness so I'm taking just a bit of the edge off there.

Comment by Derek on October 13, 2009 at 7:56am

Did you clean up the corners at all or leave them sharp? I could see using a small roundover bit for some of that. This might be some of the only plywood that you could actually use a decent roundover on without exposing the ugly panels.