I am about to work some Phenolic Baltic birch plywood. Anything I need to know ?

My experience is that it reacts like all other wood and all other ply – so zero clearence, if you need sharp cuts you can precut with a stanleyknife to prevent tear out. The ususal tricks.
Best thoughts,
Mads

-- Mad F, the fanatical rhykenologist and vintage architect. Democraticwoodworking.

I don’t know if it was phenolic, but the last piece of 1/4 inch cherry “plywood” I used had some kind core that wasn’t wood, (may have been fiber core) but it worked great using the tools I normally use.

-- Joe

I’m with mads. Its plywood. If you’ve worked with plywood you’ll see no difference.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

David,

It will chip out when crosscutting. So, as Mads has pointed out, take appropriate steps.

It routs fine. No different than other plywood. Start on the crossgrain side and work your way around. Just make sure you are using carbide bits as the resin plays hell on steel bits.

As far as drilling goes, make sure you back up your hole with a piece of scrap. It will blow out, especially if you are using spade or forstner bits with larger holes.

Cheers!

-- Dave; Lansing, Kansas