Originally Posted by
drmosh
ok so a few points...
for the sake of these comments i'm going to assume you would use 11 or 13 ply birch plywood, not the cheaper grade stuff.
When you are talking about the suitibility of plywood for use as tooling it doesn't matter how many plys, or what the surface is finished in...birch, oak, maple makes no difference. What matters in the stability of the ply is whether the inner plys are consistant. Like Ger said, baltic birch is the best plywood you can buy. In my experience it move much more than MDF, but it's the best ply I can get.
[QUOTE=drmosh;239505]
Originally Posted by
drmosh
plywood and mdf are both going to react with their atmosphere - humidity to be exact. BOTH must be sealed to be stable. plywood will warp/bow and mdf will flare at the edges.
I have no flaring of MDF and I live in as humid a place as there is. Plywood, on the other hand, is a royal pain. Again, like Ger said, you are lucky to get flat ply off the rack, and if you do you better use it quickly.
Originally Posted by
drmosh
plywood is much much MUCH stronger (tensile and compressive) than mdf. there is a reason no boats are made of mdf (and it's not because mdf isn't waterproof). however, mdf is more rigid. there are some things that could also benefit from plywood providing better dampening and strength.
I'm not a materials engineer, but I think ply is whimpy compared to MDF. You'll never get me in a boat made of MDF!!!!!
Originally Posted by
drmosh
a popular sealing method for plywood is very low viscosity epoxies - a few coats of this stuff and your plywood is crazy strong. you can do the same on mdf but you have to be very careful not to overapply and saturate the material. mdf is much more porous than plywood. my opinion is that it's better to seal mdf with a barrier coat (like a paint or primer) than a penetrating sealer (like diluted epoxy).
My choise of sealer for MDF is phenolic laminate.
Originally Posted by
drmosh
mdf is an engineered material that is effectively flat on it's surfaces. plywood is not flat, even the very best stuff. also, mdf machines very nicely and uniformly.
I agree
Originally Posted by
drmosh
plywood weighs approx. 25% less than an equivalant amount of mdf. heavier does not always mean better/stronger...
Sometimes it does.
Originally Posted by
drmosh
at the end of the day, plywood is a really amazing product that outperforms many other materials on a pound-for-pound basis. however you have to buy the good stuff and that gets expensive, and it's harder to find. also, you loose the close tolerances that you get with mdf. you could make a router completely with mdf, but it would be tough to make the same router with the same tolerances using plywood. HOWEVER - you could make a stronger and lighter router using a mix of both!
I work with both every day...literally. MDF is flat and stable. Plywood sucks to work with, but it's the only way to make attractive wood cabinets. For tools, give me MDF everyday.
Be careful who you explain the shortcomings of plywood to! Some guys wanna start crying!
Steve
DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT'S WRONG!