I also feel your pain. I bought a set of "plywood" bits. Tried the "1/4"" on a scrap. Worked great. On my latest project--I was furious. I assumed the plywood would fit nice and tight. But no, no, no, loose as hell.
Just make a fricken standard. How hard is that.
David
For the past few years I've found it necessary to make two trips to the lumber yard when I buy multiple sheets for a large project. A digital caliper goes along on the first trip when I pick out the grade, grain, etc, and even note which stack the plywood I want is in.
Back at the shop I cut a dado in sample FF material based on the caliper measurement (being sure to make project notes on the number, size, and position of the cutters and spacers in the dado stack). Then it's back to the lumber yard, using that sample dado, to check the fit, and select _each_ individual sheet of plywood.
The piece of dadoed FF stays on the dashboard of my truck until the project is finished.
A necessary PITA these days if you work to any kind of tolerances where multiple units must have the same measurement, and things like drawer slides must fit drawers made long before a cabinet is put together.
This is your business right? Isn't there any way you can negotiate slightly purchases of plywood that all conform to the same thickness? What a royal pain in the butt.
No one in the building industry, at least in this area, will guarantee anything regarding material dimensions these days, and if they did, it has been my experience that you would do well to verify it yourself in any event.
Since I am one of those who does FF's first on cabinets, it saves time, not to mention peace of mind, in the long run to insure that I don't have to re-cut dadoes in FF's.
I do a good deal of pre-planning, and since I order on a purchase order before delivery, I generally make two trips in any event. The first to check color, grade, grain, price, etc, the second to take delivery.
In between is when I take the extra step to cut a dado as a "thickness guide" for individual sheets when I pick up the order.
Your dado thickness guide is a keeper. I like that. Thank you sir.
I do some metal work. Mostly fabrications out of squate tubing. Although there is far less size discrepancies in metal than wood, it is an increasing problem there too. Particularly in the corner shape. Which changes the time and skill required to do the fabrication.
Like you, I bring samples to the yard to check them against what they give me. And I submit samples each time I order. Even then, they screw up the order now and then.
So I have already been doing this. I just did not think to apply it to wood.
Welcome to the wonderful world of imports.
-- dadiOH ____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at
You mean 15/32nds, right?
Anyway - it is nuts...
...
Nothing restricted to imports, either...
I'm wondering if you get more consistency with Appleply or real Baltic birch. You know, the expensive stuff. I'm not surprised it would be a problem with home center quality materials. But in their defense, these materials are intended for construction, not precision woodworking.
I figure that the 23/32 was actually 23/64. Excepting that, my experience is pretty much the same as yours.
Even buying from the same supplier, who is using the same manufacturer, and where the pieces are coming from the same unit - doesn't get you all the way home.
The usual solution is to not use a full dado but to create a dado/groove of 1/4" or 5/16" in width and then machine a tongue that is sized to fit that width.
This goes pretty quick with a good dado blade.
Tom Watson - WoodDorker tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (email)
BTW - The obvious question, which I neglected to address is:
"Do I then have to make a bunch of different setups to get the 1/4" tongue, given that the material is all kinda different thicknesses?'
Nope. You machine the tongues with the alleged half inch material on the vertical and the dado blade set with the lead cutter 1/4 (31/64") away from the fence.
It goes quickly. Use a featherboard and a tall fence.
Tom Watson - WoodDorker tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (email)
First, it's my supposition that the BB has a tighter tolerance. As for the rest of your comment, I believe most of us are talking about hardwood ply from our local hardwood supplier. At least I was in my case.
todd
Use the Dadowiz to cut every dado to exactly the width of the board that is going into THAT dado. Extremely easy to use.
If you ask nicely, I would bet Leon will send you plans for his jig. Fast, easy setup, and accommodates various sizes easily. Pat Warner does the same thing with two pieces of wood and a couple of clamps.
Wouldn't tolerate one taking up shop space.
Never saw one that could maintain even depth over a twenty four inch dado.
Tom Watson - WoodDorker tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (email)
You're not kidding there- we've got three or four steel suppliers at work, and every single one of them has a different corner shape. Doesn't matter all that much to the operations I'm performing, but it sure does piss off the plasma cutter operators and the welders.
Aut inveniam viam aut faciam
You can make a simple pantograph jig in 10 minutes that do just as well
It takes the dado width measurement right from the material, just like the $159 + shipping version.
Barry
I like radial arm saws, but I know EXACTLY of what you speak.
I have a friend who tried to cut a very hard peice of aluminium on his radial arm saw. It caused the arm to bend upward. If you tried to cut a
3/8' dado on a 9' board, the dado would start at 3/8' and end almost at the surface.So what this guy did was to cut the dado from both directions. Then cut down the sides with a hand saw. Then chisel out the rest.
Not exactly fine woodworking.
That's plenty bad enough. But if you want a real PITA try a little remodeling where you cut out some of the plywood underlaying a tile floor and then try to build it back up to the match the surrounding field. Maybe the plywood manufacturers make floor leveling com- pound on the side.
OK.
There is no reason they can't make metric sized plywood 12.54 mm thick just like they make metric socket sets that use a 12.54 mm drive.
If they made socket sets that took a 12 mm or 13 mm drive they would't seel very many , expecially not to repeat customers.
They same should be true for plywood. Measure it befor you buy. If it is some bastard dimension, (your choice as to what is kosher or not) buy it elsewhere if you can.
I don't agree, the manufacturer knows how much they will sand off the surface befor they lay up the neneers.
That's like saying that 2 x 4 s are 1 1/2 by 3 1/2 because a rough cut 2 x 4 was surfaced down to those final dimensions. Fact is, back in the early 1960s the lumber folks were able to surface a rought cut 2 x 4 down to 1 5/8 by 3 5/8 for s4s. I doubt very much that the technology for surfacing lumber has become more wasteful since then.
The fact is these undersized whatever are products from companies that make their product a little cheaper to gain a cost advantage over the companies who do it right.
It's your choice whom you buy from.
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