otforme (Charlie Self) wrote in message ...


Solid hardwood does look better, and IMO feels better as well. But at price of
$3.12 per bf in plywood and $3.60 bf for solid wood you're going to see a real
price differential. That solid wood bf has to be edge jointed, maybe have to be
face jointed and planed to final size, has to be ripped to get the second edge.
You say you have no planer and no jointer and you don't sound as if you have
hand planes to use for clean-up otherwise.

You can do the solid wood back panel even with plywood shelves, of course.
Personally, I love the V notch look on old bookcases, cabinets, etc.

I wouldn't bother creating my own plywood. You're going to pay 2-1/2 bucks per
sf for the veneer, then probably close to a buck a square foot for the plywood
base. Where's the savings over the $3.12 you'd pay for walnut ply?


Thanks for the reply (everyone). The reasons I thought about trying
to roll my own plywood like material a
1) Better match with the hardwood. If I buy the plywood out here on
the west coast and get the hardwood on the east coast, I'm a little
worried about how much work it will be to get the two to match.
2) Better material. I can put 1/16" hardwood veneer over a plywood
core and get a thicker hardwood layer than I would on a normal sheet
of walnut plywood (I think). This would give me more durability for
sanding, scratches, etc.

I took Swingman's advice and downloaded CutList Plus
(http://cutlistplus.com/) to help optimize the cuts and run some
pricing what-if scenarios. All I can say is wow, how did I live w/o
this type of program. It sounds like any of my scenarios are
reasonable so I'll use this program to get concrete cost numbers for
each of them.

Thanks everyone. (Now if my new General Int. contractors saw would
ever get here...)

Ted