High quality hardwood ply?

[Greg Portland]

I am about to start in on another set of room height bookshelves. My last set was about 14' long and 8' tall. I was pleased with most of the methods and materials that I used except for the walnut plywood (voids were present, some of the sheets were not straight, etc.). I of course swapped the bent sheets with my supplier but that takes time.

For this next project, I would like to see if there are any better products available. Ideally the material would be 3/4" (plywood 3/4"), void-free, 'thick' surface veneers, and be very strong. I'm thinking of Appleply quality but with a good 1/32"+ or so hardwood surface veneer (walnut, cherry, etc.) so I could lightly sand. Has anyone encountered a product that meets these requirements? Pre-finished sheets is another thing that I would consider if the quality level is there.

My alternate solution will be to buy sheets of veneer and vacuum seal it to Appleply (not attractive economically in terms of $$$+time).

Any thoughts or recommendations?

[Steve Schoene]

There are firms that will make custom plywood. Way out of my personal experience, and likely not cheap.

[Joe Jensen]

In my experience, there is no alternative that is like apply ply. I've also found that true Finnish Birch and Applply now have voids too. It's disappointing.

[Dan Karachio]

Greg, I did a project with walnut ply and it was beautiful, void-less and essentially perfect. However, it was not cheap. A little over $100 for a 3/4" 4x8 and a little less than $100 for a 1/2 sheet. The dealer has the same quality in cherry, maple or just about anything. Since I am on the East Coast and you are on the west, I can't be of too much help, but I have to imagine the right place is there somewhere for you.

P.S. I thought it was funny that I was able to get a nice pile of walnut 4/4 hardwood stock for much less than the plywood!

[Jim Summers]

I am not sure of the manufacturer name, but my local supplier is getting plywood out of south america, and it has been really nice. I don't have to worry about sanding it and there are virtually no voids, but some.

HTH

[Heath Brandenburg]

Greg, have you given the folks at Mr. Plywood or Crosscut Hardwoods a call? They'll probably have something that meets your needs.

[Peter Quinn]

Greg, we did a set of large book shelves this spring with a built in desk unit and the sheet product used was a walnut ply core with MDF as the last substrate before the veneer. It was void free, perfectly flat and relatively easy to work with. It was a AA product, and I think it was in the $140 per sheet range? I don't know the manufacturer but it was not a custom order and was available with a small lead time from our local plywood distributer.

It was basically a 1/2" ply core, maybe a 7 ply core, with two layers of 1/8" MDF then the veneers. They weren't thick veneers but they weren't tissue paper either. Much like the M&M guys, I can tell you it does exist!

[Andrew Joiner]

I used to buy lots of hardwood plywood in the 70's and 80's. Mostly oak and birch that had veneer faces about 1/32" thick and a few tiny voids. Walnut and Teak faces were thinner more like 1/64" ,even back then.

I would see the stock in person or specify the veneer on a big order today.In the past 5 years I have seen very thin Oak and Birch face veneers at several suppliers, so thin (maybe 1/100") that it's nearly un-sandable.

[Greg Portland]

Greg, I did a project with walnut ply and it was beautiful, void-less and essentially perfect. However, it was not cheap. A little over $100 for a 3/4" 4x8 and a little less than $100 for a 1/2 sheet.

8x4 walnut (1 side finish grade, 1 side paint grade) ran $120 a sheet for me. The strange thing is that we have some HUGE walnut trees in this area. They probably get shipped to the east coast, processed, and then shipped back :-).

Heath, Crosscut is where I got the ply from. They were very accommodating from a customer service standpoint but basically what they had was the best stuff that they could source. I will try Mr. Plywood but I imagine that both stores source from the same companies. The regular walnut ply would have been OK if I was not so picky about finish. I had to use grain filler and multiple finishing steps to get the surface glass-smooth and the grain popped. That takes awhile on 8x4 sheets of ply.

[Mark Lawrence]

There is a place in New York called Roberts Plywood.I used them before and they have an outstanding selection. They deal mostly with commericial accounts soI don't knowif they would be a good alternative.