Carving Plywood

[jspringertx]

You can always glue stock together to get the 15" width as well. If you pay attention to the grain, the seam is almost invisible. Whenever possible, I try to get my glue up pieces from the same board. It makes grain matching easier.

I did glue two pieces of poplar per your suggestion and it worked great. Thanks!

[jspringertx]

Lowe's and Home Depot carry 12"x48" pine board glue ups and even larger. Below is an example of a 23"x 28" sign I made from a 12"x72".

I did use the glued up pine boards before and they worked great. I totally forgot about them,

[PhotoProf]

I use Baltic Birch (Rocklers primarily) for most of the projects that I am involved with. If you choose to work with plywood, the number of "plys" is important for structural integrity... avoid 3 plys like the plague! The fewer the plys, the more tendency to warp. I generally would not recommend plywood for exterior use unless you treat it for weather exposure. It seems that as a previous poster noted, quality is declining. I have found that Menards, in my opinion, has better selection and quality than Lowe's.

[cdg]

Besides the obvious suggestion of baltic birch, I'd suggest looking at websites devoted to "stitch and glue" boat construction.

I know you're probably saying "what does that have to do with anything?"

Most of these sites will link you to lumberyards that specialize in marine grade plywoods. I mention this not so much specifically for you but for folks interested in experimenting with plywood desings. Being able to pick out the veneers in a compound 3 dimmentional texture is a really neat effect to play with from an artistic standpoint.

Marine grade ply by definition almost never uses fillers (it has to be able to be bent around forms), and is usually of top quality veneers.

Most Baltic Birch comes shipped in a 5x5 sheet, from a Russian supplier. Several of the plants used to make baltic birch plywood were established by the Nazi invaders looking to find a way to decrease their dependence on scarce aluminum resources.

Just be wary that most "cabinet grade" plywoods (shop birch and shop maple) are often just faced with a thin veneer of the species for which they are named, and underneath are really Fir or some other similar softwood.

If you buy Baltic Birch, the cheapest prices I've seen have been around 45 bucks a sheet for 3/4 inch. Baltic birch is 13 ply for 3/4 inch typically and around 5 ply for 1/4 inch thick.

I could go on and on, but I"m not anything even close to an expert on all there is to know about plywood. I suggest researching carefully, and just remember that as with many things, there is no single simple answer for any question.

[Audie]

CDG,

Thanks for the detailed info on plywood! I should be getting additional college credits from the EDUCATION I have gained in this forum! Bless each of you that contribute....we have a fantastic community!

Audie