Looking for information about stacked plywood furniture. Recently I acquired Tauntons Fine Woodworking Techniques 1,2,3, 1978 for a local rare book store. I was fascinated by Ellen Swartz article on Stacked Plywood; and would like to attempt to build some furniture using this method of construction. Suggestions, advice or any information this subject will be appreciated.
Thanks Dillon
Replies
What sort of information are you looking for?
I remember that article; I lived in NYC at the time, and that style was all the rage in some quarters.
Built a lot of cabinets with that approach; I liked the idea of accentuating the qualities of plywood, rather than trying to disguise it as a building material. In the right setting cabinets using these techniques can be striking, but the style never got any traction because it was just too jarring for a lot of folks.
As I recall her stuff was more like sculpture, shaped with die grinders, etc.
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"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
What's to say about it. Glue, stack, clamp! Get a die grinder and angle grinder and go at it until you think it's done. There's the arbortech heads and flexible sanding heads to do the work. It's more like sculpture than furniture making. It gets trickier to stack laminate solid wood as the expansion, contraction alwyas leaves some edge sticking out but ply is easy. Try fooling around with different types of plywoods, even OSB. There's beams made out of OSB that folks are doing creative things with from turning and carving. Even trex is being used. I was a guy who was turning using translucent acrylic plastic between layers of wood. Just go for it. Worst part is those cutters such as the chainsaw wheel are very aggressive. I'd start with the tungsten carbide angle grinding wheels found at WoodCraft and others. More controllable and if it slips it will only take a smaller amount of skin compared to the chainsaw wheels. Kevlar gloves are available.
If you want to see some that's quite a bit more than just stacked laminations, look up Kerry Vesper. He has some beautiful work, with a mix of ply and solids to create unique pieces.
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