Where can I buy 1/4" harwood (not ply)?

[Nicholas Briggs]

I'm looking for hardwood at least 12" x 20" 1/4" thick or even a little thinner. Anyone know where I could find this?

[Ed Peters]

nowhere that I know of. This would be VERY fragile and unstable. Highly prone to splitting in my opinion.

looks like a job for your thickness planer or bench plane.

Ed

[rob mason]

do you mean 'hardboard'? If so, Home Depot, Lowes, etc carry it.

[Matt Meiser]

I've gotten the hardboard Rob mentions at Home Depot and I believe they even sell tempered in 24x48 sheets. I've seen hardwood at a local store in pieces maybe that large and very thin. But it was very expensive and resembled a balled up rag more than a piece of lumber (in other words--not even close to flat.) Any thinner and it would be called veneer.

[Doug Shepard]

I doubt you're going to find anything that wide. 12" in even standard thickness hardwood is tough to find and $$pricey$$ if you can. I think the best you can expect to get is something narrower then joint and glue up to get the width you want. A number of places sell 1/4" (and 1/8") thick hardwood for projects. Woodcraft, Rockler, I believe Lee Valley, to name a few. It's often referred to as Micro-Lumber. You might try googling for that.

[Brad Shipton]

You mention thinner. Certainly Wood and other veneer suppliers sell veneer stock in 1/8" and 1/16" in many domestics. They will ship it to you rolled up to keep shipping costs down. Between 1/8" and 1/4" I think you pretty much need to re-saw yourself. Maybe one of the BORGs, but I have my doubts for the same reason Ed mentioned.

Brad

[chris dub]

I ordered 1/2" and 3/8" mahogony and walnut from Rockler for a jewlery box. It was expensive by the bdft. But at the time I didn't have a planer, jointer or a lot of time plus it wasn't a huge quantity. They came up to 5 3/4" wide i think. Very Clean very square on all 4 sides but pricey. The good part is you can minimize waste. Doesn't compensate for the price, but it helps a little.

[Nicholas Briggs]

I need this piece to be the the front plate to a drum box (a small drum you sit on and play by hitting the front plate) It needs to look nice, so hardboard is out. It has to be at least 11.5" wide by 19" tall. Thickness needs to be right around 5mm or 1/4". I can't joint pieces together because it's going to be hit on a regular basis, and besides I don't think that would sound right.

It looks like most people use ply for this piece, but I just hate ply. You can't sand it, it seems like the laminate flakes off sometimes around the edges. and it just doesn't seem like real wood working. (probably due to my wood turning nature.)

Looks like my best bet is a planer. Any good suggestions? I am on a very tight budget, and never ventured into the planer world.

Thanks a ton guys.

[Norman Pyles]

Are you close to a Woodcraft store? They sell wood and someone in the store could plane it down, or they may know someone. Also most sawmills will plane their boards for a small fee. Good luck.

[Steve Kohn]

If you post your location you might find someone with a planer on this website that can help you out.

Or try a local cabinet shop to get your piece milled to spec.

[Mike Circo]

Even if you plane it yourself, a ¼" thick solid piece is going to be fragile.

I'd go with a combo approach. Get ¼" thick plywood, which is always less than listed thickness anyway. Then veneer a nice hardwood face to it. It will have the strength of the ply, but the beauty of the hardwood. The veneer still is subject to sand-through, but not nearly to the extent as the original ply faces.

A cheap laminate bag from Rockler or other places that uses a hand pump to extract the air is a lot cheaper than a planer.

My suggestion.

[Peter Quinn]

Think about guitar tone wood. Much thinner than 1/4", stable, strong. sounds good! And its not likely you will see many dread naught bodies made from a single piece, they are always glue ups. A good glue joint is going to be at least as strong as the wood it connects, so bang away! I wouldn't make 5MM table tops but solid wood is still pretty strong at that thickness.

Can you include notched bracing on the back side for strength? Again, think guitar top or back. You can surely get 12" wide material, even these days, probably not on the shelf at your local lumber yard (thought it is at my hardwood supplier). Perhaps a luthier supplier can provide you with the necessary stock?

Did you have a species in mind? I'd be happy to make you a piece for free if you like and mail it to you, you pay shipping.

[Brian Kent]

Nicholas,

I'm glad you wrote what you are using this for. I am a drummer / percussionist and I made a really nice cajon for my daughter. I used a really nice piece of Baltic Birch plywood. I too would never use regular ply for one of these. But the Baltic Birch plywood (totally different than Home Depot's "Birch Ply") is very cohesive and strong. No gaps or flakes or irregularities.

Also, instead of leaving exposed edges, I cut a 1/4" rabbet in the front of the side and top pieces and glued in the BB Ply. It is very solid (probably more so than a solid piece of hardwood), looks like a solid, clear single piece, and most of all - sounds great. I purchased a 1/8" thick piece and a 1/4" piece, and the 1/4" piece had plenty of pop and just felt more durable.

Brian

[Nicholas Briggs]

Man, so many great replies. Thank you guys.

Peter, that would be awesome! No I don't have a species in mind, I was hoping to make that my next question. I'm open to any recommendations.

Brian, thanks for the info. I was just eye'n the birch ply at home depot. Glad I read this first. Where can I find some quality Baltic birch ply?

Thanks again guys.

[Steve Schoene]

I'll second what Peter said. Properly jointed pieces glued together will be just as strong as a single piece of wood from the point of view of druming on it.

And, quality plywood such as baltic birch should certainly be considered. You are right plywood shouldn't be sanded. If their are marks and such, clean them off with denatured alcohol (great with pencil marks) or naphtha.