Structural plywood for a cabinet?

[sploo]

Surely you can pick up a metal router table at those sort of ply prices and not have to worry about the problems timber ones can bring, and usually the metal ones can be universal with regard to router fixing now and in the future.

Axminster have one for £165, so not a bad price for a cast iron top (assuming it's decent) but it's not that large, so I'd still need to insert it into a larger surface. It also lacks any slots for mounting a fence, so you'd still need to do a fair bit of work.

I may however stump up for one of their phenolic or alum insert plates. Not cheap, but possibly worth it.

£100 is the most expensive I have ever seen for 18mm Birch.

50-60 seems more typical to me.

http://www.fortimber.demon.co.uk/matrl1.htm

http://www.builderdepot.co.uk/wbp-plywo ... 440mm.html

http://www.swanseatimber.co.uk/shop/PLY ... _8611.html

http://www.jtdove.co.uk/resources/pdf/p ... rSheet.pdf

If all you are building is sides for workshop equipment, high quality birch ply is way over spec I'd say.

You could also make the top from Formica and make sure it is well supported.

The fortimber prices are very good. The birch ply is BB/BB (rather than the B/BB I was looking at) but for a garage cabinet that's fine. Just a shame he's 150 miles from me

I'm definitely moving towards the "birch is too much" position. In fact, I've seen people recommend putting laminate on both sides of the top to even out any movement; but if I'm planning on having a set of adjustment screws on the bottom then even that seems like overkill.

I kinda like the idea of something that looks like wood from the sides (i.e. ply, rather than MDF), so maybe the Wickes spruce would be sufficient for the cabinet itself. A face frame of thin hardwood would hide the ply end grain (and any voids).

 

[Bodgers]

The stuff. I have is just plain BB and apart from a single 'batman' style plug it is flawless to my eyes.

If it's just the wood face you are after (arguably not an interesting face on birch), another alternative I saw when touring suppliers was "WISA twin ply". This stuff has birch faces but a spruce core. Whilst not as good as decent birch, it actually looked really good and I am told it's pretty decent.

Even Jewson flog the stuff. You are looking at about £35 a sheet for 18mm.

 

[sploo]

The stuff. I have is just plain BB and apart from a single 'batman' style plug it is flawless to my eyes.

If it's just the wood face you are after (arguably not an interesting face on birch), another alternative I saw when touring suppliers was "WISA twin ply". This stuff has birch faces but a spruce core. Whilst not as good as decent birch, it actually looked really good and I am told it's pretty decent.

Even Jewson flog the stuff. You are looking at about £35 a sheet for 18mm.

That's a good idea; though I've just phoned Jewsons and was given a price of £40.79+VAT (i.e. ~£49). At that price I'd be tempted to go for the basic spruce, or cough up the extra £16 for the full birch.

 

[mind_the_goat]

I picked up some of the Wickes hardwood ply a few months back, seems better than anything I've found in the other sheds. Didn't find any voids at all

 

[Graham Orm]

The stuff. I have is just plain BB and apart from a single 'batman' style plug it is flawless to my eyes.

If it's just the wood face you are after (arguably not an interesting face on birch), another alternative I saw when touring suppliers was "WISA twin ply". This stuff has birch faces but a spruce core. Whilst not as good as decent birch, it actually looked really good and I am told it's pretty decent.

Even Jewson flog the stuff. You are looking at about £35 a sheet for 18mm.

That's a good idea; though I've just phoned Jewsons and was given a price of £40.79+VAT (i.e. ~£49). At that price I'd be tempted to go for the basic spruce, or cough up the extra £16 for the full birch.

Jewsons will always negotiate.

 

[Mark A]

Someone asked why so many US builders seems to have mountains of Birch Ply... (I can't quote)

While over in the States last summer I called into a Home Depot store and was shocked at the prices of everything.

Tools are easily half of what we pay. 2-by timber worked out to something like £1/2.4m. 3/4" Birch ply would be between £20 to £30 if converted into Sterling.

They have it good over there!

 

[tomf]

Wisa ply from Jewsons or TP is adequate for you needs, you should not be paying anymore than £25inc vat a sheet for 18mm and that would include delivery if you get a cash card.

Builders merchants do annoy me however when you can get 18mm mdf from ebay for £11 a sheet and they tell you their buy in price is higher than that...

 

[sploo]

I picked up some of the Wickes hardwood ply a few months back, seems better than anything I've found in the other sheds. Didn't find any voids at all

The Wickes Non Structural Hardwood Plywood (dark brown outer layer)? At my local place that ply is possibly the worst I've ever used - it splinters if you even look at it, and it tends to have more voids than solids (if you get my point). Utterly awful stuff. I think it used to be better (I've got some old sheets in the garage that aren't as bad as the recent stuff they're cr*pping out).

Jewsons will always negotiate.

Well, oddly I called my local branch and got a fairly dotty young lady (who to be fair was trying to be helpful). She somewhat misunderstood my query and ended up adding several sheets to an order (I just wanted the price per sheet). The price per sheet was still high, and she went and checked with her boss, who confirmed that was the price (because I wasn't buying much). I suspect I could get a better price if I wanted 20 sheets, of course.

Someone asked why so many US builders seems to have mountains of Birch Ply... (I can't quote)

While over in the States last summer I called into a Home Depot store and was shocked at the prices of everything.

Tools are easily half of what we pay. 2-by timber worked out to something like £1/2.4m. 3/4" Birch ply would be between £20 to £30 if converted into Sterling.

They have it good over there!

But no health service... I guess it's swings and roundabouts, but yea, they do have it good when it comes to tooling and materials.

Wisa ply from Jewsons or TP is adequate for you needs, you should not be paying anymore than £25inc vat a sheet for 18mm and that would include delivery if you get a cash card.

Builders merchants do annoy me however when you can get 18mm mdf from ebay for £11 a sheet and they tell you their buy in price is higher than that...

£25!!!! Can any old Joe get a cash card with them then, or do you need to be trade?

 

[tomf]

Can any old Joe get a cash card with them then, or do you need to be trade?

Yes anyone can get a cash card. You want to speak to the people who actually do the quoting not the front desk one as they will pull up your account and give you the list/ account price. This is normally so heavily inflated it's ridiculous but then then do this so they can 'knock' 50% off.

I pay £23 for 18mm wisa, £20 for 18mm MDF, £16 9mm MDF, £24 18mm MRMDF the MDF is all kronospan I think but iId check. So it's a bit like swings and roundabouts.

 

[Bodgers]

Can any old Joe get a cash card with them then, or do you need to be trade?

Yes anyone can get a cash card. You want to speak to the people who actually do the quoting not the front desk one as they will pull up your account and give you the list/ account price. This is normally so heavily inflated it's ridiculous but then then do this so they can 'knock' 50% off.

I pay £23 for 18mm wisa, £20 for 18mm MDF, £16 9mm MDF, £24 18mm MRMDF the MDF is all kronospan I think but iId check. So it's a bit like swings and roundabouts.

That 18mm wisa has to be the full softwood wisa, not the twin stuff. You can get 18mm full sheet of MDF from Wickes for less than 20. B&Q is 20 (Metsäwood).

I might try this at the weekend.

Never been able to get a discount so far. "The price is the price" as I've been told before.

I take it you are a trade buyer to get these rates?