I am making an entertainment center out of teak. It will have 6 drawers, each with a teak drawer face attached to the 1/2" plywood drawer. I have seen ApplePly in drawers and it looks very nice. I have used baltic birch and it is less nice. The ApplePly is pretty expensive. I am wondering if there is a nice way I could finish the baltic birch or should I spring for the ApplePly.
I would value your opinion if you have worked with ApplyPly and/or Baltic birch.
TIA.
Dick Snyder
"Dick Snyder" wrote
Only you know the answer. You are spending a bunch of money for teak, so why not spend the extra for the wood you really want. Same labor for either, but if it will nag you down the road that apple would have been better, is is best to do that now.
Go back to the original concepts of a drawer. It holds stuff. If there are no big holes for the content to fall out, any wood or sheet goods will do. Start with particle board covered with shelf paper and work up from there until your wallet starts to smolder.
Well this is totally weird. I posted this message about an hour ago and the same message showed up in this website:
Good point. I just picked up my teak this morning in unfinished form and I nearly had to go rob a bank to pay for it.
Dick Snyder wrote: ...
It's one of the "veritable plethora" of parasitic sites spring up solely for the scraping of usenet in attempt to generate ad/hit revenue on the web... :(
Well, if one is spending the $$ for the casework, why would you scrimp on secondary wood(s) and/or hardware or anything else, for that matter?
IMO, unless the drawer sides are so tall as to make solid material a real likelihood for bowing, to me there's nothing that says "shortcut" like ply drawer boxes whether Baltic or Appleply or whatever.
The Appleply does finish and look somewhat better than does the B-B owing to the solid strips so doesn't have the plies showing w/o banding as does the B-B but you're at mercy as to which grain direction will be showing unless make certain to get a particular orientation one edge and then cut to width for the other...
Personally, I'd probably use white oak for the visible secondary wood; I like the grain contrast w/ teak.
Just $0.02, ymmv, imo, etc., etc., etc., ...
--
In that case, don't ever look for ebony, tulipwood, blackwood, kingwood, or ziricote. You can max out a credit card and still be able to haul it home on your motorcycle. I don't own enough crowbars, wallets, or credit cards for any of that stuff.
And check out the plantation teaks at half the price. Not as rich looking, but nice. One source (random/std. disclaimer applies)
For appearance, why not use Baltic Birch (or MDF for that matter) with teak edging and teak veneer on the faces?
I built a prototype sideboard a few years back and, because it was a prototype, made the drawers out of Baltic birch using a locking rabbet joint.
It is still sitting in my dining room, much too gorgeous to call it a prototype any longer, and I'm here to say that I'm perfectly happy with the Baltic birch drawers in that piece, and that not one of the many admirers have even noticed, or ever even remarked upon, the plywood drawers.
Keep in mind that I personally build a minimum of a few dozen, hardwood, dovetail drawers a year to go in high end kitchens ... so I'm not all that easy to please.
In short, a good argument can be made that anything well made will stand on its own regardless of the material.
YMMV ...
Something to consider, it has been said that ApplePly is the American version of Baltic Birch. Most manufacturers try to copy Baltic Birch and many yards market all kinds of stuff as Baltic Birch and in all actuality it is not the real McCoy. No doubt your opinion of what looks good is what counts. However, there is the distinct possibility that what you were looking at was not Baltic Birch rather a "look a like" being sold as Baltic Birch. Generally the real Baltic Birch is very flat with no voids and does not have a fuzzy surface appearance.
You may well be right. It was the fuzzy feel to the surface that turned me off. There is a high quality plywood supplier, Boulter, in the Boston area. Kind of a long trek but they have a LOT of different kinds of plywood. I think a field trip there would help me settle this question in my mind. Thanks.
"Dick Snyder" wrote in news:at6dndHkQZvgK5nQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
Thanks for the hint! That is close to my son's place.
On Dec 11, 12:41=A0pm, "Dick Snyder" The ApplePly is pretty expensive. I am wondering if there is a nice way I could finish the baltic birch or should I spring for the ApplePly.
I bought a chest of drawers for my wife a few years back and it had cedar drawer boxes. Of course, for clothes and such this makes sense, but I thought it was a very nice touch and one worth emulating.
If you're closer to NYC, Honerkamp in the Bronx is a plywood candy store.
Took my field trip to Boulter plywood in Boston. Their Baltic Birch was wonderfully smooth -- no fuzz. I bought what I needed for my project and learned an important lesson. Go to a quality supplier if you need a quality product as all BB is NOT the same.
BTW: they could not order any ApplePly from Boulter despite lots of calls and they are probably the biggest plywood retailer in Massachusetts if not the Northeast.
Glad to hear you were able to find the real thing.
Proper Baltic Birch, from Finland, is available in many grades all the way from sub-floor grade to 'no knots, not even on the inner plies'. Some hairy, some smooth. some flat, some bowl-shaped and almost impossible to use in drawers..... all from the same Finnish sources. And as long as each birch tree is different, whether from the side of a rocky hill or from a dried, sheltered lake bed..the stuff _will_ be graded. When I was building a lot of loudspeaker enclosures, I visited many plywood suppliers looking for that perfect material. I saw 5 x 5 sheets, of similar thickness, in at least 5-6 grades and priced accordingly. Not to pick nits, Leon, but even the 'real thing' is all over the place. I would therefore assume that a nice slab of Canadian birch plywood is nicer than a crappy 'real' Baltic Birch slab.
While we are on about BB, I wanted to see what experience people have had finishing it. I want it to be very blonde. My finishing book by Flexner says that water based finishes will leave it the most blonde with no color imparted to the wood. It will also be more work as the water in water based finishes raises the grain but Flexner was very specific about how to deal with that.
Has anyone found a way they like to finish BB? These will be shallow drawers, 5" high, to hold CDs in the teak entertainment center I am building. The faces of the drawers (7" high) will have pieces of solid teak attached. I think the teak would be nicely offset by a finished BB that hasn't any color added to it.
Thoughts anyone?
I spray my BB drawer boxes with 2 coats pre-cat lacquer over a vinyl sanding sealer(sherwinn williams system). Its reliable, quick and smooth as glass. Exceeds Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association (KCMA) durability standards.
But how much color does it impart? I've never seen a precat that was water clear in the same way as an untinted waterborne polyurethane. I see that Sherwin-Williams does have a "Kemvar LF" and a "Sher-Wood Water White" conversion varnish but both have to be catalyzed shortly before use and don't have much pot life after catalyzation.
My advice to the OP is "find a real paint store and ask them what to use that meets KCMA standards to get the effect you want".
Personally I think I'd go for a contrast--BB is a light colored wood and teak is a light colored wood although darker than BB and there wouldn't IMO really be much "offsetting". I think a darker finish on the BB might be better. Or just paint the insides of the drawers white (make sure to use a "non-blocking" finish).
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.