Plywood Collapsible Baskets

[harpone]

I have quite a few pieces of plywood given to me by a finish carpenter during the construction of a house in the neighborhood. I want to make some collapsible baskets for the first time and would like to know if the (cabinet grade?) plywood I was given would be suitable. Comments?

[will8989]

From what I remember, cabinet grade is the best, isn't it? What have you got to lose by trying one. Let us know how it works out. The way I look at it, free is free and all profit if you sell it.

[Hawaiilad]

Yes I would say it should turn out just fine. Depends on how thick it is of course. Cabinet grade most often means there should not be many voids or plugs in the wood, so the end grain should look pretty good. Look at the edges, and if you don't see allot of voids, go for it!!

[DWSudekum]

Cut one and see how it behaves. There are several grades that fall into the cabinet grade category as well as manufacturers. Here in the US some of the grades are real good while others have one good side and mostly decent filler layers and the back side which might have an odd football plug or two on it. The absolute worse thing that could happen is you find out that it has voids that you did not see. You should be just fine if you do not see any voids on the edges.

DW

[HAMMER]

Be sure and post a picture if you do cut them we would like to see how it comes out....

[SawTooth]

Another idea for good plywood: it looks great when carved... here is a project I did. I scroll sawed 4 identical seahorses and glued them together, then rotary carved, sanded and finished it. The base is 3 layers of the same, carved with a rotary grinder disc, then sanded and finished. A 5/8" dowel joins the two (without glue so I can rotate it to show its good side and easier to transport).


BTW, my guess is that good plywood (no voids) would be fine for the collapsible baskets you asked about. With voids, no. My plywood had no voids, but if there was an occasional one, I'd fill with dust from the sanding and then saturate with same finish I was using... I'd expect shrinkage and do it another time or two.

Spence