unclelouiesboy posted:There was at one time a thread on here that talked about making bench work from plywood and gave the dimensions for ripping a 4 x 8 sheet to get the maximum amount of strips out of it that were of the same dimension . I have tried to find it using the search feature with no success. Does any one have that information they could share ? or have any idea of the title of the thread or how to find it ? Thank you Gary
If you plan to use ripped plywood strips as framing members, take note. A piece of 3/4" thick plywood ripped to 3 1/2" (same size as a 1"x4") will not have the strength a 1"x4" has. Some may point out that it depends on the grade of plywood used. That may be true. But in my opinion, you'd have to spend too much money on a suitable grade of plywood to get comparable strength with dimension lumber.
To counter act the weakness of ripped plywood strips, glue two of them together to form a member 1 1/2" x 3 1/2". You could form an L girder using plywood strips but plywood does not take kindly to a screw threading into it from the edge.
I find it surprising that so many have commented on the bad grades of 1x material, 1x4s, etc. Even at home depot I can get decent white pine boards that are straight. A good carpenter can make a silk purse from a sows ear. I've had to do it on more than one occasion.
Making L girders takes a little bit of thought when using less than perfect lumber. Sometimes you have to make the two pieces work against one another in order to wind up with a straight girder.