Cool! The medium weight plywoods have MDF in the middle and I hate MDF. In point of fact as there are no limits for any of the coaster designs as you can just use the official cutting schedule for that material. Or the schedule you have worked out for any non-pg materials.
The exception is the Grabber. That has to be real plywood. I made some doubles out of some left over Medium Maple and they broke easily. I designed a mirror set for those cases of one sided materials you can put the pretty part on both sides.
I was not able to post designs until light plywood arrived and much of the first stuff I did post were from the introductory stuff discount that I purchased when it was introduced.
The first ‘light’ ply I saw was in 2018, I was doing a ‘Save the Date’ fridge magnet for my daughter’s wedding and used their new 1/4" ply. I was amazed when the one in medium ply was heavier than the 1/4". I figured it must have a Balsa core or something.
Seriously? It was that long ago? I was one of the folks helping to test out the different settings for it and thought it was only a couple of years ago.
These are examples of what they were selling as thick’ ply and medium. Note the date, the engraving occurred well before that. The piece out of focus is the thick sample.
The ‘thick ply’ is 0.183, and the medium sample is 0.123.
The thick ply weighed 11.9 g, the medium was 12.9. Just holding one in each hand got your attention.
I know the light ply is much newer, so didn’t expect the older patterns to be made in it. I just want more of the newer additions to the catalog to be made with it.
I had no idea the core of the medium was mdf. I just kinda figured plywood, whatever kind or thickness or where it’s purchased, whether pg or big box stores, was all wood. I thought ply just meant it was layers of wood glued together to make the thickness, whereas mdf is more of a wood pulp glued and pressed together. Shows how little I know!
That will depend on the designer. I personally wouldn’t be running out to buy light ply for new designs just because it exists. I can’t see any benefit. The weight of these objects is rarely of concern, and proofgrade medium cuts perfectly on a fully-functional machine.
I personally use 5/32" Columbia Products ply more than anything else.
I knew that the medium was MDF, and thought the thick was too. I would have purchased a lot more thick if I had known.
As soon as you apply Hand sanitizer to MDF it dissolves that glue as well and you are back to a pile of sawdust. I had a work desk made of it that was cleverly hidden so I did not know it until I had it for a year or so and it kept dissolving on all the edges for the rest of the time I had it. The used it a lot on the floors here as underlayment at it is dissolving over time as well. Did I ever explain why I really hate MDF?
Before that I had Oak ply that was 5mm and Revolution ply that is about 4mm but is good on only one face and not near as strong, but the least expensive available per sq ft.
You can buy wood core plywood or MDF core plywood. I like MDF because the side burn is nice and dark consistently. Wood core tends to show the layers of the ply, since the color is lighter than MDF
Thick has always been their 1/4" … the majorty of 1/4" calipers to .21 not .25
Medium has been their 1/8" … calipers at .12 not .125
So we always knew a Light was probably coming. I just got some light ply, and am going to caliper it. I’m guessing it will come in at 3/16"
0.11 without the masking (I just measured it) The first stuff I got I thought was mislabeled as it looked the same. As the middle is one layer of poplar (I think) it is almost indistinguishable from medium except that it does not get thicker and harder to cut over time and does not dissolve if wet, or break when the force matches the grain as all has happened to me.
