Changing Course Equals Success
Going back to the drawing board for my self-fabricated plywood yielded excellent results.
The problem presented by my previous attempt, unique in my experience of making several other plywood pieces from veneers, led me in a different direction. Given the performance needs of the completed panels the obvious option of hammer-veneering the laminae with hot animal hide glue was not a realistic option as the panels need to perform in a variably hostile environment. Instead I went back to an old favorite for this sort of gluing — marine epoxy.
I repeated the same steps as before using another couple of sheets of the prime ash veneer but substituting old favorite West System Epoxy for the PVA, eliminating any delierious moisture response in-process.
The results were entirely satisfactory, yielding 5-ply panels just under 1/8″ and 7-ply approximately 3/16″ so I can now proceed with the project.
Hi Don, I stumbled on this page for the first time in a while- and this post reminded me of a research project I worked on while a grad student in Wood Science and technology at West Virginia University around 2006-2009 – We were utilizing hardwood veneer wastes to create composite panels and other value added products (a fellow grad student went on to create I beams with a corrugated web).. we played around with all kinds of adhesives and spent a lot of time sending veneer through a paper shredder to get uniform widths and then through a pasta maker to apply spray foam insulation as the adhesive… by playing with the coating thickness you could drastically alter the density, and of course vary the orientation for different strength properties… I’m sure you have enough distractions- but if you’re ever interested check out “Development of veneer-based corrugated composites” … as for me, I’m now a happy carpenter outside Philadelphia and enjoy woodworking and tinkering – and greatly enjoy checking in on your blog whenever I get the chance!