Rubbish Modern Ply

I needed to make a box to house a delicate measuring probe for my CNC lathe, and had to hand an offcut of 12 mm 7 ply from B&Q the bulk of which had made a new counter top for a tool cabinet.

Usual approach, make the box as one entity pinning and gluing the top and bottom to the already fixed sides making a sealed box, sand all faces to a good finish, then saw apart making a lid and base that you can guarantee will match each other even if very slightly out of square.

Worked very well until we get to the sanding stage where I find I've been heavy handed and sanded through the top ply - surely NOT - 11.45 mm thick (measured) 7 ply each ply should be about 1.6 mm thick - no way have I sanded 1.6 mm!

. . so I did an experiment with a scrap of the ply, and sanded until I got the same effect then measured how much I had removed. Answer a bit less than SIX thou so what's going on ????

It seems that it's NOT 7 ply but 9 ply, the two outer 'plys' being only 6 thou thick and basically just a colour layer that is paper thin.

. . .what junk is being foisted onto us these days !!!!

Andrew

you bought it.

In message <qb98pp$eo9$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, Andrew Mawson <andrew@please_remove_me.mawson.org.uk> writes

Even 30 years ago when I needed quantities of decent marine ply, I had to trawl round the wood yards, inspecting samples carefully. I was often in the position of being told that they were waiting for some ship to come in for the next decent batch.

I think there were about 4 yards to visit, and who got to know me.

B & Q was not one of them.