Amateur needs a little advice.
Is Home Depot 1/4 inch oak plywood, the 3-ply stuff, extraordinarily crappy? Is the veneer less robust than 'good' stuff, in terms of being able to peel it from the edges? (I can fingernail large slivers off the Home Depot stuff pretty easily. Is this normal for all hardwood plywood?) Does good stuff have a more reliably bonded veneer surface, or is it all a little fragile? The HD stuff is very thin - it is certainly nowhere near 1/4 inch. It is also very flexible compared to the pieces I am attempting to replace. But the grain pattern and the 'roughness' of the surface is actually closer to what I'm looking for than the more refined surfaces of the 5-ply good stuff I've seen. And, the veneer itself seems thicker. Then again, the good stuff is much stiffer, and comes much closer to being a true 1/4 inch thick, both of which I would prefer.
I wish I could find good, fairly rigid stuff with the grain pattern and texture I need. It's a replacement for some very old and ruined veneer panels finished in a rough Mission style.
Can I stiffen the HD stuff by gluing a slightly smaller piece of the same stuff to the back? Or, should I use strips of 'real' wood (say
3/8" thick) to stiffen the plywood? I don't want to make it perfectly flat or terribly rigid - it has to fit into an old cabinet which is reasonably well warped.Or, should I try harder to find some stiffer ply with a suitable surface? Or, is all 1/4 inch plywood a pain in the ass?
Thanks, fimmel