I just built a bookcase from 3/4 oak plywood with real oak wood for
trim. I copied this from another bookcase that we purchased about 12
years ago. I am finding the shelves in mine are sagging from the
books. The old book case with same style and crafted shelves does not
have this problem. I was told that the core material in the newer
plywoods is crap and that is the problem. How do you pick plywood for
strength? I noticed in Home Depot the other day they had Oak plywood
that was stamped made in China on the edge and it looked far superior
to quality than what I used and was made by Boise. Any comments?
BT98 wrote:
> I just built a bookcase from 3/4 oak plywood with real oak wood for
> trim. I copied this from another bookcase that we purchased about 12
> years ago. I am finding the shelves in mine are sagging from the
> books. The old book case with same style and crafted shelves does not
> have this problem. I was told that the core material in the newer
> plywoods is crap and that is the problem. How do you pick plywood for
> strength? I noticed in Home Depot the other day they had Oak plywood
> that was stamped made in China on the edge and it looked far superior
> to quality than what I used and was made by Boise. Any comments?
Well, I used to buy oak plywood from home depot.. Back when they
charged $50/sheet, it was pretty good quality (for B grade).. Now it's
down to $40/sheet, and it's crap.. the veneer comes off and there's
lots of Huge voids.. I had a project where I had to recut because under
the veneer was a huge void.. like 3 inches by 2 inches.. Fortunately,
when I was handling it, my finger broke through.. I would've really
been mad if that happened after the project was done.
Unfortunately, I bought 4 sheets of that crap, so it's going to be used
as garage shelves now.. Sadly, I have to drive 2.5 hours now to get
good oak ply at a reasonable price.
Juergen Hannappel wrote:
> Plywood is unsuited for bookshelves. You want either solid boards or
> core board, with the grain of the core part along the long side of the
> shelves.
That's a pretty drastic statement.
Plywood works just fine for bookshelves, as long as they are suitably
designed with the limitations of the material in mind.
Certainly it's not as strong as solid wood, but you don't always need
that strength.
Chris
"BT98" <[email protected]> wrote in news:1143729753.776958.225060
@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
*snip: Oak Plywood sagging and low quality...*
>Any comments?
>
Put a back on your shelves. It will prevent books from falling behind
the shelves as well as stiffen and strengthen everything. If you use
strong enough material for the back, you can even secure the shelves
along the back.
Alternatively, you could add a 1x2 to the back of the shelf, which if
placed on the base of the shelf would prevent books from being pushed
back too far and give you some fairly straight lumber to straighten the
shelves.
Puckdropper
--
www.uncreativelabs.net
Old computers are getting to be a lost art. Here at Uncreative Labs, we
still enjoy using the old computers. Sometimes we want to see how far a
particular system can go, other times we use a stock system to remind
ourselves of what we once had.
To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm
You are talking about Lumber Core, almost unavailabe toda, and yes it is
more resistant to bending or flexing than plywood. However at least Ply
won't take a set like chipcore. If you are using ply, and I have for
bookshelves. It can be made far more sag or flex resistant by laminating on
a solid wood edge that is thicker than the board.
On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:43:48 +0200, Juergen Hannappel
<[email protected]> wrote:
>For bookshelfes solid core board is as good as solid wood at a lesser
>price, and is the preferred material if you want hardwood bookshelves.
What is the width of your shelves and what is on them ???
BT98 wrote:
> I just built a bookcase from 3/4 oak plywood with real oak wood for
> trim. I copied this from another bookcase that we purchased about 12
> years ago. I am finding the shelves in mine are sagging from the
> books. The old book case with same style and crafted shelves does not
> have this problem. I was told that the core material in the newer
> plywoods is crap and that is the problem. How do you pick plywood for
> strength? I noticed in Home Depot the other day they had Oak plywood
> that was stamped made in China on the edge and it looked far superior
> to quality than what I used and was made by Boise. Any comments?
>
"BT98" <[email protected]> writes:
> I just built a bookcase from 3/4 oak plywood with real oak wood for
> trim. I copied this from another bookcase that we purchased about 12
> years ago. I am finding the shelves in mine are sagging from the
> books. The old book case with same style and crafted shelves does not
Plywood is unsuited for bookshelves. You want either solid boards or
core board, with the grain of the core part along the long side of the
shelves.
--
Dr. Juergen Hannappel http://lisa2.physik.uni-bonn.de/~hannappe
mailto:[email protected] Phone: +49 228 73 2447 FAX ... 7869
Physikalisches Institut der Uni Bonn Nussallee 12, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
CERN: Phone: +412276 76461 Fax: ..77930 Bat. 892-R-A13 CH-1211 Geneve 23
Chris Friesen <[email protected]> writes:
> Juergen Hannappel wrote:
>
>> Plywood is unsuited for bookshelves. You want either solid boards or
>> core board, with the grain of the core part along the long side of the
>> shelves.
>
> That's a pretty drastic statement.
Yet I uphold it.
>
> Plywood works just fine for bookshelves, as long as they are suitably
> designed with the limitations of the material in mind.
Plywood (with it's many thin layers) is a nice material, but strength
against bending over long lengths is not its bets property.
>
> Certainly it's not as strong as solid wood, but you don't always need
> that strength.
For bookshelfes solid core board is as good as solid wood at a lesser
price, and is the preferred material if you want hardwood bookshelves.
Juergen
--
Dr. Juergen Hannappel http://lisa2.physik.uni-bonn.de/~hannappe
mailto:[email protected] Phone: +49 228 73 2447 FAX ... 7869
Physikalisches Institut der Uni Bonn Nussallee 12, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
CERN: Phone: +412276 76461 Fax: ..77930 Bat. 892-R-A13 CH-1211 Geneve 23