#birch never perfectly straight.

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

dense wren
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Hi. The birch plywood panels I get delivered are never perfectly straight, no matter how thick they are.
I'm wondering if it's the supplier fobbing them off to me, or just the way they are naturally.

Either way, I want to use them and I'm wondering, when I cut them to about 120x80 boards and then basic butt join them without mitering, is there a good way to make them straighten up? I have some tools for holding 90degree corners with materials. And I can use my hand a bit to put pressure on the face of the board when drilling the screws in.

I would preferably like to miter them, but would the bend really not come out more then? I can imagine some gaps. Is this down to me choosing the best part of the panel to cut?

And please no QP.

steady iron
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With plywood it all depends on how it was stored. My local hardwood supplier stores them flat on a flat table. Plywood stored on a couple of blocks so it can be picked up with a fork lift ends up drooping on the ends and bowing in the middle. The stuff in my local big box store often resembles a W in shape.

For getting a good quality miter, yes a bow in the material can/will impact the quality of the miter. I don't do a lot of mitered corners of this type so I cannot give you a good idea of the extent of the issue.

When I need to coerce small bows out of sheet goods, I use bar clamps to hold the pieces together in the position I want, drill pilot holes, then sink screws. Or since I rarely use butt joints except when gluing up panels, I'd add glue to my joinery and then coerce the panels together with clamps and leave them clamped until the glue was well and dried (24+ hours).

grizzled yoke
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Plywood is never perfectly flat.

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How far it is from flat?
If a sheet is within a few mm it's not an issue. If it's 20mm then it was stored improperly.

dense wren
dense wren
dense wren
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Maybe it's not as bad as I'm thinking

wintry iron
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lol

dense wren
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Was busy for a while and these have just been sitting there. They're no worse or better, but was the lol because they're actually dogshite? Haha.

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I am planning to rent a van and just pick up the parts myself next time, and going for B grade over CP.

honest rune
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QP left the server, so we may never know