# How do we deal with plywood?



## eschatz (Feb 12, 2014)

I'm looking to start my foray into casework. Plywood is awesome, strong, stable, cheap, and convenient. I've heard that it will dull the crap out of my blades. Chisles, planes, router etc. What do you all say to this?


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

eschatz said:


> I'm looking to start my foray into casework. Plywood is awesome, strong, stable, cheap, and convenient. I've heard that it will dull the crap out of my blades. Chisles, planes, router etc. What do you all say to this?


Somebody is giving you bad information.

George


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## mako1 (Jan 25, 2014)

That and what are you calling plywood?Construction grade?Cabinet grade?Baltic birch?These are all plywoods and come in different grades.You have to be more specific?


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## MT Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

eschatz said:


> I'm looking to start my foray into casework. Plywood is awesome, strong, stable, cheap, and convenient. I've heard that it will dull the crap out of my blades. Chisles, planes, router etc. What do you all say to this?


I don't know what you are calling cheap. $80-100 for cabinet grade plywood is not cheap. And if you use the prefinished birch or maple, it is even more.

Even, Birch, maple or red oak plywood at the big box stores are $50+ per sheet.

Remember this, you get what you pay for. If it is cheap, it will be cheap. Delamination is the first thing that comes to my mind. Then there are some that bow when they are cut.

Good luck. Choose wisely.


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

MT Stringer said:


> I don't know what you are calling cheap. $80-100 for cabinet grade plywood is not cheap. And if you use the prefinished birch or maple, it is even more.
> 
> Even, Birch, maple or red oak plywood at the big box stores are $50+ per sheet.
> 
> ...


Mike I think plywood is cheap compared to gluing up solid wood panels. Maybe that's what the OP meant by cheap.

I'm paying $96 for 3/4" walnut both sides.

Al


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## ryan50hrl (Jun 30, 2012)

Al, I think you got it right.....plywood is pretty cheap considering it's already to the right thickness, and cheaper than gluing up a 4x8 panel.


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## MT Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

I thought he was talking about cheap plywood. More specifics would be helpful.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

I say poppycock to that. The only example ive heard of plywood dulling blades is using baltic birch across a jointer. Personally, i like plywood for some things. Its dimensionally stable, or at least moreso than solid wood, and is cheaper in some cases, for example, well, a 4x8 sheet. Try to do that out of solid wood, i dare ya. Dont get me wrong, i still prefer solid wood, but plywood is good in my book


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

How did this discussion get off on the cost of plywood. 

The question was whether or cutting plywood dulls blades.

George


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## eschatz (Feb 12, 2014)

Yes, I was talking about plywood in comparison to gluing up panels to width. For garage cabinet building/bookcases/etc. Just wondering what you guys do as far as handtool people.


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

eschatz said:


> I'm looking to start my foray into casework. Plywood is awesome, strong, stable, cheap, and convenient. I've heard that it will dull the crap out of my blades. Chisles, planes, router etc. What do you all say to this?


I use plywood on kitchen cabinets and items that go in garages and closets. Every other room in the house gets solid wood. 

The plywood I use for this seems to have the veneer glued to a layer of some kind of paper then the various layers are wood. My guess is they are soft wood or at least softer wood. Maybe Neul or someone else can clarify the makeup of the plywood. 

I have done miles or dados in walnut plywood just this past year and found my bits lasted far longer than I expected. For a 3/4" dado I use the two pass exact thickness fixture. I made three passes to reach the desired depth. To me, the router bits seem to last a long time. I used cheap throw away bits from the box stores, red and blue.

Cutting the plywood with a panel saw and table saw didn't seem to dull the blades faster either. This is the first time I've used this many sheets of plywood. Over 45 sheets. 

Hand planing plywood on the edge may be a different story as you would be coming in contact with a lot of glue lines. I only once in a blue moon needed to use a block plane on plywood, same for other hand tools. Best off if when using plywood you make machine cuts that require zero hand tool work. That's kind of the beauty in using plywood. It's finished except for final sanding.

Al


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## Nick Sandmann (Oct 24, 2014)

I'm assuming this referring to hand planes and/or hand saws. It might dull your plane blades faster than cherry, walnut, maple, but I'm going to assume if you're doing this by hand you know how to sharpen your blades. So just sharpen them when you're done.

I could see this being an issue with hand saws if you don't know how to sharpen your own saws and are paying someone else to sharpen them. However, for plywood, I'd just run up to any hardware store, spend $20 on a cheap hand saw, and then just joint the edge with my plane to clean up an rough edges. Or if you sharpen your own saws, just sharpen them when they get dull.

I can't imagine plywood being any harder on a blade than some of the exotic hardwoods(eg: iron wood) that you might encounter.

Personally I'd just use my table saw and skip the hand tools when working sheet goods, but if you are set on hand tools just make sure you know how to sharpen them and it doesn't really matter if the plywood dulls them(yes sharpening takes time, but I don't believe you're working plywood by hand to save time :smile: )


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