wood/plywood structural ability

Are you talking about sandwiching plywood between two 2 X 4’s (I-beam type) construction?

-- Jesus is Lord!

No, like using birch ply as a shelf in a cabinet, or plywood carcass construction of bookcase with the plywood laying flat.

-- Rick - Spring, TX

I’ve seen some articles on that condition. Also the relative strength of mdf and plywood and with and without face boards.

But I don’t remember where. There is a web site called Woodworking Magazine index you might check there for some hits.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Seems I read an article in Popular Woodworking or some other woodworking magazine, that said that adding an edge to plywood would reduce the flexing and bow some 50-70 percent.

MLCSWoodworking.com has a tongue amd groove edge banding set (part # 1081) to put a solid wood edge on plywood.

Adding a strip of wood along the bottom will help strengthen it too.

If the price of the banding set seems a little high, you can wait until they go on sale. Just keep checking. What I like about MLCSwoodworking.com is that they offer FREE shipping.
I am sure you cab find some edge banding bits elsewhere, like Rockler or Woodcraft, but MLCS seems to have all the rest beat, pricewise, with excellent quality to boot!

Good luck and God bless!
Hawg

-- Saving barnwood from the scrapyards

In the Spring 2005 issue of Woodworking Magazine ( http://www.woodworking-magazine.com/magazines.asp ) There is an article about: “The Science of Shelving”. It tells about a set of rules or guide line to follow to not get sagging shelves. It has a graph showing 1/4” of deflection. Different spans and different widths & thicknesses of plywood with Particleboard core, MDF core, or veneer core, plus solid board shelving. It is very interesting. You cannot get this article off the net unfortunately.

Email me if you need any more information…I would not want to have a copyright violation held against me. :-) (Remembering is is for personal use only)

I bought the CD set, pretty interesting. Lot better storage than bulky mags…then just print what you need.

-- Carpe Lignum; Tornare Lignum (Seize the wood, to Turn the wood)

I thought I read somewhere that the span for unbanded plywood was 30-36”. It sounds like PJ has some better information on that.

I bought a set of the plywood banding bits from MLCSWoodworking and they work great. Easy to cut a groove into the plywood, and then cut a matching piece on the hard wood. I still need to practice the edging part, to have a consistent exposed band on each side. But, I do like the bits.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

I’ve used the bits on the cradle/Glider that I made so that where I glued plywood to solid wood I’d have a better bond that just plywood edge. I sanded the edge flush and veneered over the top of the plywood and the solid wood.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

PanamaJack. Yes the CD’s are great.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Quote RickInTexas: ”Is there any source that give how much you can free span say 3/4” plywood without is bowing under common loads?”

I’ve got just what you asked for.

THE SAGULATOR

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.hillsbiblechurch.org/