Maple Plywood with Soft Veneer Core

Maple Plywood (with soft veneer core) 

Description

Our maple plywood has two maple veneer faces and a softwood veneer core (usually pine, fire, or spruce, but sometimes poplar). This is a North American product and like most softwood plywood, the edge may have some voids in it, so the edges are not typically left exposed. This plywood is sometimes called furniture-grade plywood, and although that term does not always correspond to a specific grade, one face is very nice and can be finished to result in a professional-quality surface.

Laser Cutting

Laser cutting maple plywood works beautifully, with most lab cutters cutting thicknesses up to 1/4in and many cutting up to 1/2in or more. The laser does leave a dark charred edge. You can leave it as is, or if you prefer, you can easily sand the edges to remove the charring. Maple plywood is more expensive than Baltic birch, and may only be warranted for the highest-quality finished wood surfaces.

Specifications and Dimensions

The outer veneers on maple plywood are quite thin, typically 0.010-0.020in (0.25-0.50mm) and the inner layers of veneer relatively thick, typically 0.125-0.150in (3mm+). This plywood comes in nominal fractional inch thicknesses (1/8, 1/4, and so forth), but the thickness is always about 1/32in less than the nominal, or 0.094in for 1/8 nominal  0.219in for 1/4 nominal. Typically, both 1/8in and 1/4in birch plywood have three inner softwood layers and two thin outer maple veneers. Of course, MakerStock provides pre-cut maple plywood panels in the right sizes for the laser cutter, or to a size convenient for your project. All MakerStock panel dimensions are cut to tolerances of +0in/-0.188in. That is, the panel will always be up to 3/16in undersized so that it will definitely fit a machine with the corresponding nominal bed size.

Like all plywood, the faces are graded for quality. Our maple ply is B4, which means the better side is grade B and the worse side is grade 4 (the backside for this type of plywood is graded 1-5, with 1 best). The B side is beautiful, with no knots or patches. The backside is usually very nice, but will usually have a few pin knots, some color variation, and perhaps a “football” patch. Typically you design your object such that the “4” face is on the backside or inside of an assembled object.

You can finish maple ply like any hardwood. We like the wipe-on Minwax polyurethane. Sand first, and then apply thin coats, with light sanding between applications.

Maple plywood is essentially the same density as softwood plywood because the veneer core is mostly softwood. Density runs about 570 kg/m3 or 0.021 lb/in3.