I'm planning on building a pair of bookcase/hutches like these:
They will be painted, so I'm considering 3/4 birch plywood, something I've never used before. A local lumber yard quoted me ~$75 per 4 x 8 sheet. Home Depot has (what they call) Birch Plywood for ~$50.
I know that HD lumber typically sucks but I'm curious: What does the extra $25 get me at the lumber yard?
P.S. Would 5/8" be good enough for the carcass with 3/4" for the shelves and top of base?
Thanks!
In my experience, the HD stuff varies by lot. You must inspect and you can get lucky. I've gotten some incredible plywood from HD/Lowes for very cheap. I've also seen horrible, warped, out-of-square crap there. If you're looking at $75/sheet, you might want to look at plywood with MDF outer veneers. Best of both worlds and paints up smooth and easy.
replying to DerbyDad03, Iggy wrote: You'll have to visually inspect them both. Rumor has it that the Lumber Yard still gets the furniture-grade plywood with a decent veneer thickness, I haven't found this to be true at 2 of the Lumber Yards around me. HD's however, is too thin to ever be refinish sanded.
Otherwise, 5/8's is definitely plenty and even too much for the carcass. 3/4 is at best only okay for the shelves, real wood planking would be a vast improvement. But, if you choose the 3/4, then you should angle iron or c-channel the front and back edges to avoid the inevitable future sag.
Most likely the quality if the inner ply's is going to be the price difference. And or if it is stain quality or simply paint quality.
I would not advise using 5/8", probably strong enough but IMHO not enough savings to offset the extra effort of dealing with different thicknesses of wood and plywood.
There is so much wrong here, it is difficult to know where to start.
mdf core is more stable
or go with half inch marine ply
replying to Scott Lurndal, Iggy wrote: I agree, you're what's wrong...as usual.
Exactly. I was about to reply but then I was like, "no, what good would it do?"
Well, it might help the OP who is trying to learn about birch plywood.
Besides, it'll definitely be fun to watch. ;-)
Why do you snip our posts to such an extent that there absolutely no context left?
Why do you snip our posts to such an extent that there absolutely no context left?
This question, which will never be answered to your satisfaction, is annoying to the rest of us. ;~(
If you are going to be painting it, do yourself a favor and check out MDO plywood. The surface is far smoother than veneer and paints beautifully.
3/4" for the carcase may be overkill since the forces are cross-surface but it certainly can't hurt. For the shelves 3/4" alone probably won't be sufficient if you are actually going to put books on the shelves so plan on some form of stiffening (or center support).replying to DerbyDad03, Iggy wrote: Because, I'm on the new (1995, over 20-years ago) and improved REAL internet where it's not needed and only useless clutter, instead of some ticker-tape nonsense. We talk normally, we don't very annoyingly repeat what others said to us with our every response.
Agree. I have some white plastic coated bookshelves. Particle board or MD F, not sure. Shelves are 3/4". 30" width. The ones with heavy books in t he middle do have noticeable bow. 1/4" bow probably. Noticeable. Plywood would likely be stronger than my cheap particle board or MDF shelves. But strong enough to avoid bowing?
It's very common practice to put hardwood edging on the front of 3/4" plywood shelves. It does two things. It obviously keeps the shelves from sagging. It also looks better in most cases. I've never liked the look of 3/4" thick shelves. They look cheap. They look WalMart or Ikea. Adding a thicker hardwood front edge to a 3/4" shelf doesn't just *make* it more sturdy, it makes it "look" more sturdy. It also has the advantage of matching the thickness of the face-frame. Again, all subjective but that's my opinion on it.
Leon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
All things considered, I think I'd rather have the context and the poster restricted to the characters a-z and space.
Puckdropper
It was always my plan to put a hardwood edge on the shelves to hide the cor e, add some visual bulk, and to provide stiffening. Form and function. There will be a face frame too. ;-)
Thanks.
I don't know how familiar you are with your Home Depot's product lines, but I can tell you from experience that it can vary wildly. If I am looking f or a certain plywood, I drive to the nearest store and look at their stock.
A couple of days ago I was ready to build a "one off" carcass to replace th e large sink cabinet damaged by a bad leak at a client's house. I went to t he closest HD looking for A/B, B/C, economy "cab ply", or even this unident ified paint grade stuff from Chile they have once in a while. I found some thing called "pine ply" or similar. It was A/B in appearance, but all hard pine. No footballs, good veneer thickness, 8 layers of material (!!!), an d really clean. Never seen it before. It was about $30 a sheet.
Got it back to operating table, and laid out my cut patterns and wound up u sing almost all of it, the point being lots of cuts, probably 30 lineal fee t or so. ONE void, just one about the size of a pencil eraser in one of th e layers. That's it. Held screws, brads, etc., with no problems and when using my countersink, it didn't splinter.
If I had a place to put this stuff I would go buy about 5 sheets and put it back for my own use. I know that next time I need it they may (probably n ot) have it. We primed it with a roller on one side (interior of the cabin et painted per client) and put on a coat of paint before cutting. Assembled , we put on one more coat on the floor of the cab after the plumbing was re installed and I have to say it looks great. It sanded great, no splinterin g, and holds paint just fine.
Don't fall into the hole of thinking you will get a better quality of plywo od from a distributor. Around here, the local wholesaler (DixiePly)sells a great deal of the same stuff in the big boxes. The stuff in limited suppl y like the cab ply from Chile (affectionately called "Chiliply" by me) is a n HD exclusive so directly to them in lots. Most quality plywoods come fro m the local guys where available.
Not too sure what to make of all the nonsense posted by the guy that hasn't seen the end results of his work years later. The carcass should be 3/4". Thickness of your shelves should be predicated on their load. When buildi ng for all books, I use 3/4" plyood with a fascia (usually around 1x2) to c ompliment the style of the cabinet, and put a piece on the back of the shel f to keep the overall dimensions. I have seen my work with that detail hol d a library of law books, and a specialty open back cabinet to display larg e porcelain objects go for years without sag.
That being said, I also have used a 5/8" plywood on shelves. I put a flute d edge band on the show side and it looks and works great. The shelves hol d kitchen towels, tablecloths, cloth napkins in a utility hutch that look a bit more finished in that small, skinny cabinet.
I would find out what was going to be in the cabinet, decide if the shelves are to be adjustable, and take a look from there.
As always, just my 0.02. But I would take a look and see if I could find th at plywood at HD...
Robert
These are 4ft shelves and they were loaded down with books and scrapbooks, etc., and have had no sag after years under load. In my opinion, they would look really bad if I left them at 3/4" thick.
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.