Difference Between Wood & Plywood

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Part of the video series: How to Use Basic Woodworking Tools

Summary: How to understand the difference between wood and plywood; get professional tips and advice from an expert carpenter on woodworking tools in this free instructional video.

Views: 631 | Tags: table, saw, chop, woodworking, planer, carpentry, joiner, biscuit, clamping, jointer


About the Expert

Kevin Mouton Kevin Mouton has spent the last four years making custom, high end, solid wood and veneer furniture for local and national clients out of a shop in Austin, Te... read more

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Video Transcript

Difference Between Wood & Plywood

Hi, my name is Kevin and on behalf of Expert Village, I'm going to talk a little bit today about woodworking. When you're woodworking for your home or for a project that you're doing for your business, one of the main things you have to decide is whether the project you're going to do is made up of solid wood or plywood. Both have their advantages and you need to really think about what is that you're doing and figure out which one works best for you. With solid wood, you have to take into account the economics of it, the fact that it expands and contracts and just the general look you want to go for. The same thing with plywood, you have economics to consider and will it work for what you want to achieve. Typically solid wood is used in more traditional furniture pieces and plywood is used for more kitchen cabinetry and closets, things like that. Plywood has the wood running in alternate directions which cancels out the wood movement, which makes it ideal for a cabinetry situation where you have really big cabinets with doors and the wood isn't expanding and contracting, pinching off doors and things like that. Plywood is very ideal for kitchen cabinetry and things of that line. So that's what you want to use for your traditional cabinetry jobs. With solid wood, you have the expansion and contraction of the wood to deal with and so as you can see on the grain here, its one solid piece throughout and it expands and contracts along it's grain and so with the different seasons and air conditioning, heating, it will take on and let off moisture and get bigger and smaller throughout the year. So you have that to take into account. So, once you've got over your project and decided where and what you need to use solid and plywood for, the next step is to buy your lumber and bring it back to the shop and depending on which one you selected, there are different methods that you would use to get it to the size for the project that you have and that's what we're going to talk about next, is how to machine your wood properly.

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