I am quite a beginner in woodworking.. so here comes some basic questions.
I bought a sheet of 3/4 in oak verneer plywood from our local lumber yard — they had to “order it”. I stored it in my garage (quite warm out here in California) for about a month, standing on edge — off the floor. When I got to saw it up for shelving, I found that it had warped.. Is there anyway to flatten this plywood?? was it a bad product?? or is there a trick to storing such flat sheet material.
Next, I’m trying to stain this oak plywood with a “natural mission” stain. It takes the stain very differently than the red oak styles/rails. Some experimenting is leading me to add a bit of tung oil to the stain to prevent it from going too deep and dark. So far its working.. but does anyone know if there will be ill effects down the road??
thanks for any help.
Replies
Hi
I am sorry to hear your problems with the oak plywood.
No there properly isnt any thing wrong with plywood, the problem is in the way you stored it, never store wood on the ground,it will absorb moisture and swell up. if I need to store wood anywhere close to the ground I always place scrap blocks of wood on the ground first and then put the plywood on the scrap wood.
I am not sure if you can reduce the swelling of your plywood, but Ide try cutting off a inch or two off the ends and see if the has swelled beyond that point,other than that perhaps the sun can evaporate the axis water.
Good luck if your project.
Thanks.. got a couple good suggestions on how to proceed...
Dac-
I'm betting that you stored the plywood so it was leaning against the wall or something. If so, that's what caused it to warp.
Ideally, plywood should be stored laying flat but that's not possible unless you have a pretty large shop. If you can't lay it flat, you need to keep it as nearly vertical as possible - and check it occasionally to see if it's warping. I 'flip' mine once in a while so gravity will take the warp out of it.
It's also a good idea to rough cut your pieces as soon as you get the plywood. I often do this then stack the pieces flat somewhere out of the way until I'm ready to continue with the project.
As far as the staining issue, are you using red oak ply with the red oak rails/stiles? What brand of stain are you using? I typically use Minwax stains and I've never had a problem with color matches between the ply and the solid wood.
What part of CA are you in? I'm in the SF bay area.
Dave thanks for the information...
I did store the plywood on end, on scraps of wood.. but I will,next time, flip the sheets and cut quickly...
the stain I've normally used has been Minwax.. The stain I'm using this time is Rudd Mission ... to match a purchased entertaiment cabinet.. the Rudd came from the manufacturer...
But the plywood really took a much darker color than the red oak boards from the styles...
As far as location.. I'm in the gold country..... what part of bay area are you??
again, thanks for the information..
Wet the underside of the convex plywood and suspend it between two points with a weight on top. Check it in a coupla days,the warp should be gone.
Always stain first on scrap before you apply it to your piece. It's easier to go progressively darker than to go lighter.
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