On Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:42:11 -0500, -MIKE-
My second is wet wood-- the pine, maybe. Silly question, but was either
product pressure treated in any way? Was the pine recycled from another
project and treated with any kind of finish or solvent?

Nothing pressure treated or finished in any way ~ at least before the
glue dried and then I applied a Minwax stain and finish.

It occurred to me that the glue I applied didn't adhere well to the
layers of wood already glued together with the plywood. Or maybe,
just really poor quality plywood. In any event, it was a number of
years ago that I last worked on this and I haven't tried a similar
construction since.

Maybe it's time to try again, if only for information's sake.