How to intentionally delaminate plywood?
January 11, 2023 1:34 PM Subscribe
I want to add 1 ply of plywood's thickness to the edge of a shelf and buying a full sheet of 1/8" birch seems like a foolishly expensive option. Is there a relatively straightforward process to delaminate a ply from some of my plywood off-cuts so I can use that instead?
A couple of years ago I made some bookshelves out of birch plywood. I'm making some extensions for it now and I was thinking of giving the top shelf a raised area/lip around the edges to make it like a big saucer because we'll have plants on it and it seems like a good way to prevent water from spilling over if the plants pots leak due to overwatering.
My initial thought was to carve a depression in the top of the shelf. I do have a router but I'd need to make a sled for it and it feels like it'll be a long, noisy, messy day if I do this.
Then I thought I could just add an additional ply around the edges (build up the edges instead of carve out the middle). But I can't seem to find retailers to sell me a 1/8" strip of birch plywood that is 8' long and maybe 3" wide which is all the wood I'll need. I can buy a full sheet but that costs almost as much as the 1/2" sheet I bought to make the shelves. I'm sure I'll find a use for the extra wood eventually so that wouldn't be a total waste but until then it'll be sitting in my garage mocking me.
I will have some off-cuts when I'm cutting the shelves so if there's a way I could separate the layers then I could use that and solve everything. Searching for "how to delaminate plywood" gives tips on how to stop it from happening but not how to do it on purpose. Looking at what to avoid I guess that some application of heat and moisture like a steam box could make it work. Would that be a good way to do it or is there some better way?
Another option would be to rout in a groove on the top close to the edge using something like a roundnose bit but that feels like it'll become a dust and dirt magnet plus it won't be able to hold as much water.
A couple of years ago I made some bookshelves out of birch plywood. I'm making some extensions for it now and I was thinking of giving the top shelf a raised area/lip around the edges to make it like a big saucer because we'll have plants on it and it seems like a good way to prevent water from spilling over if the plants pots leak due to overwatering.
My initial thought was to carve a depression in the top of the shelf. I do have a router but I'd need to make a sled for it and it feels like it'll be a long, noisy, messy day if I do this.
Then I thought I could just add an additional ply around the edges (build up the edges instead of carve out the middle). But I can't seem to find retailers to sell me a 1/8" strip of birch plywood that is 8' long and maybe 3" wide which is all the wood I'll need. I can buy a full sheet but that costs almost as much as the 1/2" sheet I bought to make the shelves. I'm sure I'll find a use for the extra wood eventually so that wouldn't be a total waste but until then it'll be sitting in my garage mocking me.
I will have some off-cuts when I'm cutting the shelves so if there's a way I could separate the layers then I could use that and solve everything. Searching for "how to delaminate plywood" gives tips on how to stop it from happening but not how to do it on purpose. Looking at what to avoid I guess that some application of heat and moisture like a steam box could make it work. Would that be a good way to do it or is there some better way?
Another option would be to rout in a groove on the top close to the edge using something like a roundnose bit but that feels like it'll become a dust and dirt magnet plus it won't be able to hold as much water.
I think anything you did would not be worth the effort. But one ply of plywood is just thin wood. You should be able to buy thin strips of hardwood at any big box store. Look in the aisle where they sell "project panels" or hardwood. They're usually lower down on the shelves. If you have the means to re-saw wood (a bandsaw, etc) you could just re-saw them to the right thickness.
To answer your question, I don't think you could un-glue the plys in any way that would result in something usable but you could re-saw a strip of plywood on a bandsaw, setting the re-saw fence to the thickness of one ply. I generally have to clean up any re-saw with a thickness planer by YMMV. You can re-saw on a tablesaw as well but it's not as safe as using a bandsaw.
If you want a really thin lip you could just buy some edge laminate strips for the edges of the shelves but I don't think that would work or look very good.
posted by bondcliff at 1:47 PM on January 11, 2023 [2 favorites]
To answer your question, I don't think you could un-glue the plys in any way that would result in something usable but you could re-saw a strip of plywood on a bandsaw, setting the re-saw fence to the thickness of one ply. I generally have to clean up any re-saw with a thickness planer by YMMV. You can re-saw on a tablesaw as well but it's not as safe as using a bandsaw.
If you want a really thin lip you could just buy some edge laminate strips for the edges of the shelves but I don't think that would work or look very good.
posted by bondcliff at 1:47 PM on January 11, 2023 [2 favorites]
Any other solution is going to be easier than trying to delaminate plywood scraps. Plywood is made not to fall apart and trying to get it to fall apart isn't going to be easy or fun.
If you have access to a planer and a band saw or table saw, you can just cut down solid wood into thin strips. If you don't, you might be able to get something thin at a lumber supplier. Otherwise, some places will sell you 1/2 or even 1/4 sheets of plywood.
But looking at the bigger picture, you really don't want water sitting on top of your shelf. This will cause the plywood to rot. It will probably be worse if you attach thin strips (because the water will get between the plywood and the thin strips) or cut some kind of recess (because that will expose more edges and more glue in the plywood to water). You could use some kind of epoxy to waterproof this, but that will cost you much more than a sheet of plywood.
Just use plastic trays underneath your plants.
posted by ssg at 1:49 PM on January 11, 2023 [11 favorites]
If you have access to a planer and a band saw or table saw, you can just cut down solid wood into thin strips. If you don't, you might be able to get something thin at a lumber supplier. Otherwise, some places will sell you 1/2 or even 1/4 sheets of plywood.
But looking at the bigger picture, you really don't want water sitting on top of your shelf. This will cause the plywood to rot. It will probably be worse if you attach thin strips (because the water will get between the plywood and the thin strips) or cut some kind of recess (because that will expose more edges and more glue in the plywood to water). You could use some kind of epoxy to waterproof this, but that will cost you much more than a sheet of plywood.
Just use plastic trays underneath your plants.
posted by ssg at 1:49 PM on January 11, 2023 [11 favorites]
If you have a Rockler or Woodcraft near you, check them out, as they carry all sorts of thin wood. I don't know if I've gotten anything as thin as 1/8", but I've definitely gotten stuff that's less than 1/4".
But I agree with ssg in that you're potentially making things worse by letting water sit up there.
posted by jonathanhughes at 1:54 PM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
But I agree with ssg in that you're potentially making things worse by letting water sit up there.
posted by jonathanhughes at 1:54 PM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
Would this work?
https://www.amazon.com/wood-veneer-strips/s?k=wood+veneer+strips
posted by superelastic at 2:01 PM on January 11, 2023
https://www.amazon.com/wood-veneer-strips/s?k=wood+veneer+strips
posted by superelastic at 2:01 PM on January 11, 2023
Response by poster: It's an open shelf, here's a picture of how it looked when I made it. It looks the same now but is full. Basically the extension is going to replace the small table to the left that currently has plants on top and board games underneath. The plants all have dishes underneath to collect excess water but if those were to overflow or get knocked over then on a flat shelf it wouldn't be good news for whatever was underneath so the lip would be to stop that from happening. Haven't had any accidents yet but it is something that I could see happening and I'd like to mitigate that risk if I can.
I do not have access to a band saw or table saw. I guess with a guide I could use my circular saw and cut a layer off a strip of plywood. That sounds like a more workable plan than trying to delaminate the wood.
The lumber yard I bought my plywood from is very construction oriented but I will look at some other shops to see what they've got.
I was thinking of veneer as a possibility but the edge will be visible so it'll be really noticeable that this one shelf is different from the rest.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:15 PM on January 11, 2023
I do not have access to a band saw or table saw. I guess with a guide I could use my circular saw and cut a layer off a strip of plywood. That sounds like a more workable plan than trying to delaminate the wood.
The lumber yard I bought my plywood from is very construction oriented but I will look at some other shops to see what they've got.
I was thinking of veneer as a possibility but the edge will be visible so it'll be really noticeable that this one shelf is different from the rest.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:15 PM on January 11, 2023
Can you buy wood molding? It comes in 1/8"..here's one source.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:41 PM on January 11, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:41 PM on January 11, 2023 [4 favorites]
Forget about plywood or veneer, it's not really what you need here. You need a solid profile that ideally is shallow where you connect it to the front of the shelf, and then can be wider where it is free standing for structural purposes. But: the material can be timber, plastic or metal, and if it is plastic or metal, it can just be a strip in the necessary height.
On preview: what If only I had a penguin... said.
posted by mumimor at 2:44 PM on January 11, 2023
On preview: what If only I had a penguin... said.
posted by mumimor at 2:44 PM on January 11, 2023
If you spill enough water to notice, it's going to overflow a single veneer of plywood. It'll get under the pots, sit there and rot the shelf. If it overflows down the front it'll soak your books.
I'd put the plants in a couple of Pyrex baking dishes so you can see if there's water. You can get them in a thrift shop for $2.
But really, putting a plant where you can't see spilled water, and where it'll do a lot of damage, isn't really a great idea.
This is from personal experience.
posted by AugustusCrunch at 2:56 PM on January 11, 2023 [6 favorites]
I'd put the plants in a couple of Pyrex baking dishes so you can see if there's water. You can get them in a thrift shop for $2.
But really, putting a plant where you can't see spilled water, and where it'll do a lot of damage, isn't really a great idea.
This is from personal experience.
posted by AugustusCrunch at 2:56 PM on January 11, 2023 [6 favorites]
The lumber yard I bought my plywood from is very construction oriented
It might still be worth asking if they've got some offcuts/leftovers themselves they'd be willing to sell or even give you. I've gotten some useful "scraps" from pro lumberyards.
posted by soundguy99 at 3:04 PM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
It might still be worth asking if they've got some offcuts/leftovers themselves they'd be willing to sell or even give you. I've gotten some useful "scraps" from pro lumberyards.
posted by soundguy99 at 3:04 PM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
Art or hobby stores often have model-making sections that have very thin sheets of balsa or basswood.
posted by brentajones at 3:21 PM on January 11, 2023
posted by brentajones at 3:21 PM on January 11, 2023
Response by poster: Moulding's a great idea. It's long strips and I can use my router to shape it.
But I do see the point about dedicated trays underneath the plant pots doing a much better job at protecting against water spilling than trying to make the shelf deal with it. That way I can also keep the top shelf exactly like the others and if I did put books on it in the future there wouldn't be any lip around the edges to get in the way.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:22 PM on January 11, 2023 [5 favorites]
But I do see the point about dedicated trays underneath the plant pots doing a much better job at protecting against water spilling than trying to make the shelf deal with it. That way I can also keep the top shelf exactly like the others and if I did put books on it in the future there wouldn't be any lip around the edges to get in the way.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:22 PM on January 11, 2023 [5 favorites]
I agree with AugustCrunch, very little spill from plant pots will quickly ruin your shelf.
The roughly rectangular or circular lids lids of old style Pyrex baking dishes would make ideal trays for plants when turned upside down, and they have like a 3/4" height or less, and are not obtrusive.
Another solution would be a layer of linoleum on the top shelf, not glued down. But that would still need to be dished to contain spills, and it would be tricky to make the edges look good.
posted by jamjam at 3:34 PM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
The roughly rectangular or circular lids lids of old style Pyrex baking dishes would make ideal trays for plants when turned upside down, and they have like a 3/4" height or less, and are not obtrusive.
Another solution would be a layer of linoleum on the top shelf, not glued down. But that would still need to be dished to contain spills, and it would be tricky to make the edges look good.
posted by jamjam at 3:34 PM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
inexpensive plastic trays or glass dishes under the plants' saucers would do a better job of protecting your wood. Any water leaking is going to damage the wood no matter what kind of lip you build.
posted by leslies at 4:31 PM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by leslies at 4:31 PM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
I use low profile galvanized trays for my plants. The lip on the tray is maybe 1/2” high and they look nice.
posted by janell at 5:47 PM on January 11, 2023
posted by janell at 5:47 PM on January 11, 2023
You aren't the first pilgrim to run into this.
They make edgebanding for plywood, it has a heat activated adhesive. My local orange big box hardware store even carries it.
Having said that, the solid nosing is better for high abuse areas, some strips of wood as wide as the plywood is thick, and maybe 3/4" thick. Brad and glue these to the edges of the plywood.
If you are going to stain be careful to either not get or remove any excess wood glue with a wet rag.
posted by rudd135 at 8:49 PM on January 11, 2023
They make edgebanding for plywood, it has a heat activated adhesive. My local orange big box hardware store even carries it.
Having said that, the solid nosing is better for high abuse areas, some strips of wood as wide as the plywood is thick, and maybe 3/4" thick. Brad and glue these to the edges of the plywood.
If you are going to stain be careful to either not get or remove any excess wood glue with a wet rag.
posted by rudd135 at 8:49 PM on January 11, 2023
I would just put a length of half round or 1/4 round molding on the top edge of the shelf, rather than trying to attach anything to the front.
posted by Ardnamurchan at 10:15 PM on January 11, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Ardnamurchan at 10:15 PM on January 11, 2023 [3 favorites]
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Is this an enclosed shelf? Could you just cut it a bit short and put a strip of plywood along the edge that sticks up a little? (Or something other than plywood, if you want it decorative.)
posted by restless_nomad at 1:44 PM on January 11, 2023 [2 favorites]