[Steve Lefebvre]

Closing in on kitchen addition. First floor is painted, floors down, and cabinets installed, almost. Cabinet boxes and drawers are in and waiting for granite next week. Cabinet bodies are quarter sawn white oak. We planned on amber Plyboo doors but the 8×8 samples we sent to finishing did not come back looking good. The very light sample was fine but the amber sample had some lines on the face where the strips of Plyboo meet. There must have been a very small gap between the strips that sucked the finish in. Is this common?

[Un-Authorized]

Steve:

As you know, wood finishing is a trade unto itself. There could be all kinds of reasons for what you are describing. How experienced is your finisher?

Good luck,

Joe 

[Andy Graves]

I think Gene makes cabinets with that material. Give him a call.

[Steve Lefebvre]

I’ll try to call Gene today. Finishing has little to do with it. It is called ply but is 3 layers thick for 3/4 material. Face and back “veneers” are something like 3/16 thick strips about 7/8 wide and edge glued together. I am finding out that these strips are prone to seperating randomly across the sheets. At that thickness they do not behave as veneers, more like restrained solid wood.
When I planned the kitchen we were going to use a bamboo veneer made by Ligma. Real bamboo pressed into a sheet of p-lam with a p-lam tough surface finish that looked like a hand rubbed wood finish. Sadly, Formica started producing their own wood/p-lam veneers and stopped importing the Ligma brand. Ligma ended up closing its doors and last year Formica shut down its own wood/p-lam operation. Not one stinking sheet in the country.
Laminart makes the same product but they put a surface finish on it that looks like cheap crap.

[Gene McDonald]

Steve, are you talking about the edge grain having gaps? I never had the gaps in the deck of the sheets as I recall, also is it Plyboo brand? they are the best and tight pressed, better than the knockoffs..but i fill the edges once in a while, because they are chutes and tend to have small gaps

when I rout the edges I rout backwards first..if you cut right in that can basically pull out a chute depending on where you cut the board…the stuff is great..also You say Amber..there are two types Flat grain and edge grain…Edge grian is more like 1/8 pinstripping and flat grain is the 1″ strips

What I did when I filled the knock=offs…I did not use putty..it never matches on the face..use a sealer/filler they sell here for grainy pourous materials when first spray the doors..if you dont feel comfortable..fill it with krazy glue and sand it falt then re spray..I know if you read the plyboo manual and tried there methods…to keep from blasting another fabrication manual outta the park..lets just say it needs to be updated

sorry if I sound vague but send pic to me or is it the Bamboo or the Finsh on the bamboo..also if you sand it too fine…typical finish might not stick to it…

my email is refreshinteriors@verizon.net

[Steve Lefebvre]

Thanks Gene. It is amber flat grain. I may have another work around. Oakwood and Flexible Materials have this in 4×8 sheet veneer. About $100.00 less than a full Plyboo sheet. I just need a suitable backer to balance it, lay it up on MDF if I can find it in 11/16. Should come out to just about 3/4 when done. I need about 5 full sheets for the doors and drawer fronts. Just need to check up on a few other veneers we are looking at. We are also considering quarted white oak veneer and I would also lay that up myself, have a Joos press that can press 17 sheets at a time cold, or 1 a min hot.

[Gene McDonald]

ok.

[KCWOOD]

Steve…. why not go with quartered raised panel doors, solid white oak….   some of us deal with the real stuff…  maybe it is just a Ky thing….

Plus, I can’t tell you how many bullets I have encountered over the years. I would actually save those boards… they would have a stain streak from the lead that finishes out so unique!

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