The value of Proofgrade

Researching how to design an table with no glue or screws, and I came across this lovely article. The author details the issues one can have with lasers and plywood, and their own quest to overcome the problem.

The awesome news is that it wasn’t that hard for them to source the perfect plywood once they figured out what to ask for and found someone whom they could ask. Which is a great sign for Proofgrade managing to live up to the promise of not costing that much more than alternative sources of lower quality materials.

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I’m thinking the heck with that…

I have free wood after every storm, a chainsaw, a bandsaw, a high quality re-saw blade, a planer, glue, clamps, and a table saw…I might just make my own practically free plywood!

I just need some free time :frowning:

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So has anyone tried lasercutply.com for good laserable plywood?

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I haven’t…have no laser yet :frowning:

But I wonder if I can make and sell them for less…oooohhh…

I almost ordered some, but what they charge for shipping is both high and all over the place.

For my zip code the shipping on a single piece of 1 x 2’ 5.2mm solid core plywood is $7. OK, I can live with that. But the shipping cost of the second one is 50% higher, $10.50. That seems odd. The shipping remains at +$3.50 per sheet for the third and fourth, but for some reason it then drops to 50¢ for the fifth. Numbers six and seven are $3.00 each. Number eight is $6.00 extra. Then the ninth one drops the shipping charge by $5.80. What? It’s actually cheaper to buy 9 than 8. It’s also cheaper to buy 14 than 13 and 18 is 10¢ cheaper than 17.

At the 9-sheet price (~$7.19 per sheet) it’s about 3.5 times more expensive than locally sourced baltic birch plywood (which I measured at 5.6mm). But since the local stuff seems to be riddled with knots (or other anomalies) causing most sheets to fail in one place or another, I’m still somewhat tempted to buy some. Thanks for the link!