Phenolic plywood

[Mike Sandman]

Phenolic, melamine and epoxy are all varieties of thermosetting plastic. They all harden with heat (unlike polystyrene and polypropylene which soften with heat. (I spend 25 years at a company that impregated industrial fabrics with phenolic and we used millions of pounds of phenolic...)

Most plywood is made by laminating sheet of wood together using resorcinol resin, a cousin of phenolic. Phenolic plywood is plywood, not MDF, and it's been faced with a thin layer of phenolic-impregnated birch. not paper It's very smooth and tough and it's useful for making jigs. Phenolic plywood has phenolic just on the surface plies. The interior plies are regular plywood - often birch. Woodcraft carries it.

As noted by others, phenolic plywood is also use in the construction industry to make tough long-lasting forms for concrete, which is why Whiteside carries it. Whiteside is a commercial supply house, not a retail outlet.

If you buy "solid phenolic" of the sort used to mount routers under a table, you're probably getting a laminated phenolic-impregnated cloth, which is similarly very tough and smooth, but usually not as thick as phenolic plywood. In the 1980s Caterpillar tractors used a thick, wide ring of phenolic-impregnated cotton as an axle bearing. (Maybe they still do.)

Woodcraft carries 3/4 and 1/2 plywood and it is expensive -- see http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx...e=details#tabs. But is makes strong, smooth long-lasting jigs. If you need a low-friction surface that resists abrasion, phenolic is a god choice. Example: table saw outfeed tables; fences.

[Frederick Harvie]

Does any one know of a source of phenolic plywood with a white surface.

[Jim Butterfield]

I got a sheet of phenolic-coated ply in the spring. Kencraft will cut up a sheet and UPS it to you for around $125. I don't have a local supplier in the area, so it was my only option. I'm using it for utility table tops. It takes a roundover on the edges nice and is quite durable. Kencraft has only brown.
http://www.kencraftcompany.com/

[Charles Grosjean]

I'd like to know if anyone has some experience with phenolic plywood.

What brand do you recommend if you have worked with it?

Stig.

The [good] red stuff is FinnForm, used for concrete forming. Since you're in So. CA, you can buy it from one or two suppliers for considerably less than you would pay for it from specialty wood stores. It's been a long time since I've priced it, but it was less than $80/sheet for 3/4".

[Brian Kent]

Welcome to the creek. Your question gave me some information I didn't know. I use the Woodcraft green phenolic ply on my router table. I like everything about it but the cost.

Brian