Hand tools and plywood - is that a really bad idea?

[Jim Matthews]

I score the final dimension I want in plywood and cut close with an old Orsa crosscut that has impulse hardened teeth.

I don't us my Japanese saws on this stuff, it just knocks teeth out.
I bevel to the score line with my handplane and finish off with light passes.

I don't notice any appreciable difference in wear rate on my plane irons.
There is more tendency to break out in plywood at the end, so a judicious chamfer helps.

I've just seen some plywood furniture with a cunning treatment of banding that was impossible for me to discern from solid wood.
For larger jobs, a tracksaw is a Godsend.

I tape the underside to reduce chipout, in that case.

[Rob Marshall]

Again, thanks to everyone for the advice. I guess another part of the reason for wanting to know about using plywood is that I want to keep the drawers "relatively" small. I don't know if I could even get 1/4" thick pine and how stable that would be if I could find it (perhaps it's easier than I think...). I still plan on giving it a try with some 6mm (1/4") baltic birch as soon as I can get around to it. I'm going to be getting the japanese plywood saw from Lee Valley to give that a try as well as a (sharp :-) cross-cut saw.

Rob

[Stanley Covington]

To do the double knife-line Stanley alludes to (to keep both sides of the cut usable), I put two little knives (made out of old jigsaw blades) in my panel gauge, face to face. They're shaped like a spear point marking knife, but having the bevel sides facing each other, I get two lines fairly close to each other.

Joshua's idea of double razor knife blades in a panel gauge is very clever. I will use it.

As has been mentioned before, the glue used to laminate plywood is hard on tools. But a more significant case of grief is the grit imbedded in the veneers, especially the top and bottom layers, from thickness sanding during production. Serious abrasives.

If you use a steel-body handplane on plywood, almost immediately you will find deep scratches on the plane's sole from contact with this grit. Glue alone cannot do this degree of localized damage so quickly.

After working plywood, and observing old examples of plywood in furniture and construction, I have been forced to conclude that, while for many applications plywood is an excellent choice (50 years of durability is more than adequate for kitchen cabinets or built-ins or roof/wall sheathing), plywood is a relatively short-term material determined to self-destruct. Be sure you are aware of the material's limitations.

Stan

[David Keller NC]

Again, thanks to everyone for the advice. I guess another part of the reason for wanting to know about using plywood is that I want to keep the drawers "relatively" small. I don't know if I could even get 1/4" thick pine and how stable that would be if I could find it (perhaps it's easier than I think...). I still plan on giving it a try with some 6mm (1/4") baltic birch as soon as I can get around to it. I'm going to be getting the japanese plywood saw from Lee Valley to give that a try as well as a (sharp :-) cross-cut saw.

Rob

I think you'd find 1/4" eastern white pine to be exceptionally stable. It won't be nearly as strong as Baltic Birch across the grain, but almost no natural lumber is as strong as plywood of equivalent thickness.

[Stanley Covington]

I think you'd find 1/4" eastern white pine to be exceptionally stable. It won't be nearly as strong as Baltic Birch across the grain, but almost no natural lumber is as strong as plywood of equivalent thickness.

From a structural engineering standpoint, a comparison of solid wood and plywood of the same thickness shows that plywood is quite often weaker (deflects more under the same loading) than solid wood. Plywood has very significant advantages over solid wood in many applications, but it is not generally "stronger" in terms of deflection or rupture.