Exposed Ply and Voids

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wizer

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I finally got a couple of hours in the workshop today and I was continuing with a project I am making for my daughter. It's basically a seat which she can aslo use as a step to get up to the kitchen tops, etc.

step-stool.png


Excuse the gaudy colours, I'm going to try and find a better colour scheme.

Anyway, I'd intended to use exposed ply edges. However, even tho I bought Birch ply, the edges are rubbish, full of voids.

DSC_0161_001.JPG
DSC_0162_001.JPG


I'm not sure what to do? Should I fill them somehow? or maybe Edge them somehow? or should I start again?

The idea was to make it a nice cheap project. I could make it out of MDF I guess. Or Pine?

Any ideas guys?
 
Try woodwhisperer, episode 33, I would have liked to link it but I'm not that good at techie things.

Rich.
 
Tom, you could fill the voids with coloured woodfiller it seems fiddly
but a bit of masking tape either side and then a quick sand off
before you know it BYUFYA
 
I've previously used iron on veneer edging on curved plywood edges and it worked very nicely.

If you want to see the exposed ply layers, then I guess it's filler.

Our canteen at work has some very heavy and very long plywood benches. I counted 48 layers (how sad am I) and not a single void. The cheap far eastern stuff I used for the internal cladding in my workshop was full of voids, so I guess it must be price related.
 
I hadn't considered edge banding. I intended to round everything over to make it easy on little'n hands. Iron on edging wouldn't work for this. Solid wood would be better but that would involve steam bending around quite a tight curve..

I think I'll try filling and see how it looks. I don't know why I didn't go for solid or MDF in the first place. I think I was going for that very specific exposed ply ege look which I think is very nice. But high end ply is over £70 board and I only needed a 1/4 of it.
 
I think its called colour-fill. Small tubes in a variety of wood shades B & Q sell it.
 
I've done a load of edging on ply recently with ash, I used exterior grade 18mm from B&Poo and it was full of voids yet did a really nice job. It must be diassapointing when you've bought good material to have those voids showing, it seems that even the best ply isn't good enough. I really like plywood and I've seen some clever things done with chamfered edges and gentle tapers which really show it off. It seems we need another grade of plywood beyond 'furniture grade birch ply' which is an 'exposed edges' grade, I'd pay a premium for that, one day...

Aidan
 
Split a few layers off an off cut and glue them into the larger visible voids getting the grain direction as near as possible. After rounding over smear the surface with brummer and then give all the edges a good sanding.

If you do go down the lipping route you can get worktop edging that actually has two tone stripes to look like ply edgegrain, the top radius may be a bit tight though.

Don't use colourfil, its flexible and you will never sand it down.

Jason
 
Agree with JasonB about using slivers of the actual ply. I acquired a partly made rocking horse which a guy had started in poor quality ply that was full of voids. Took quite a time to fill all of them with grain matched bits, but with Brummer to tidy up the surface, it worked fine.
 
This stuff? is it good then

http://www.brummer.co.uk/woodfillers.htm

Just looked in my junk box it wasn't "colour fill" think thats the worktop joint stuff. I was thinking of Ronseal general purpose woodfiller available in about 3-4 colours comes in a small tube..However the Brummer is very interesting.
 
Yes, the yellow labled interior one is easy to use and sands very easily, been around for donkeys yearsand IMHO better than a lot of the modern fillers. Can darken a little when finish is applied so test first if its critical. I use it on most natural woods, but use two part fillers on MDF.

If/when it starts to dry out a bit of spit mixed in will bring it back to
life :wink:

The colourfil is actually colour matched for kitchen worktops, not wood

Jason
 
Tom

I'm afraid its the quality of the ply thats the issue. With the right birch ply I think the exposed edges can look good, but I agree with the voids you have, it looks less atractive.

This is the only pic I can easily find with birch ply edges, but as you can see there are no voids showing here - I think this was BB.

2581912576_d789b97124.jpg


I think I'd be tempted to wittle some little wedge shaped pegs and tap them into the holes and trim flush with a knife, although depending on how many here are that might be a massive job.

Cheers, Ed
 
EdSutton":2oz6yhjj said:
Tom

I'm afraid its the quality of the ply thats the issue. With the right birch ply I think the exposed edges can look good, but I agree with the voids you have, it looks less atractive.

This is the only pic I can easily find with birch ply edges, but as you can see there are no voids showing here - I think this was BB.

2581912576_d789b97124.jpg


I think I'd be tempted to wittle some little wedge shaped pegs and tap them into the holes and trim flush with a knife, although depending on how many here are that might be a massive job.

Cheers, Ed

Still haven't made one of them :( ...it's on the tuit list for '09 - Rob
 
woodbloke":z56n56nm said:
Still haven't made one of them :( ...it's on the tuit list for '09 - Rob

Well he's upgrading his saw soon so he can just send you his ;)


Lots of good advice. I have seen that Brummer stuff in Axminster actually and I fancied a drive down there today.

I can't really complain about the quality of the PLY as, although it is Birch faced ply, I knew it wasn't a good grade. I was just hoping I'd be lucky with the voids not being in such prominent places. I've seen worse. The stuff I used for my workbench had curved and interweaving plys.

I need to go and inspect the pieces again and decide which route to go. I've had to rout dados, stopped dados and drill 78mm holes, then template rout them in 4 pieces, so I really don't want to start again.
 
wizer":bptxjrw7 said:
Well he's upgrading his saw soon so he can just send you his ;)

Don't goad me, it'll only end in tears (mine!) After getting that bandsaw up the stairs I'm having a machinery embargo for a bit! :D

Cheers, Ed
 
I might have a Jet SS for sale by the end of next year..........
 
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