There’s a current thread about a dining table with inlay which led to a short discussion about substrate materials, and that made me think that you might be interested in a very nifty solution to making slab doors and such. The problem is well known – how to make flat wood parts that are more or less immune to drastic expansion and contraction, yet still look like wood and not veneer.
The 3-layered panel works quite well. It is basically homemade plywood, 3 layers only, with the middle layer twice the thickness of the outer layers and grain running at 90° to them. The photo shows a panel of walnut – 10mm core and 5mm on each face.
My shop uses a subcontractor with a large press to glue these up to order. We’ve used French oak, walnut, cherry, alder, and maple, all with great success. There are a few companies in Europe (like Tilly in Austria) who produce sheets of this stuff for the market, but I don’t think it’s available in the US at all. But anyone with a good press can produce it for himself.
David Ring
Replies
David,
These panels are very interesting. How big and how thick do you make them? I assume they don't really move at all with the grain running at 90 deg. - is that correct? Do you use them in applications where the edges show? I think they would look nice for a some applications. Any more info would be appreciated.
Chris
Chris,Until now we've made them only 20mm thick (just over 3/4") and used them mostly for slab cabinet doors. I've sometimes added wide solid edges to get what looks like breadboard ends but in fact are just simply glued on with biscuits. But in most cases we leave the edges exposed - clients can appreciate how it's done and see that it's still solid wood that's just been "re-engineered".For all intents and purposes, they don't move at all. The wood for the glue up must be dry to 7-8% and without major irregularities.Sizes depend on what we need, but typically 3'x6' pieces or thereabouts. Largest glue-up was about 3'x8'.We started out buying these panels from Italy, but figured out that we could make them ourselves for a lot less money. We use a local subcontractor with a large press who glues them up for us as required. I've often wondered why nobody in the US seems to use them at all.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?lang=e&id=1
That sounds very interesting.
If I had to guess it's not used in the US because keeping the balance requires that the center layer requires "expensive" wood of same or similar species as the outer plys. Here the tendancy would be to quickly move to wanting cheaper inner plys. However, you still can buy lumber core plywood here, which is some what closer in concept.
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