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Plywood - when did 6mm become 5.5mm?

S

StevieB

Nordic Pine
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I have a rail and stile cutter from Axminster, several years old but still sold. The groove this makes for the panel insert of a cabinet door is 6.35mm for presumably a 6mm board. Just been searching for plywood to make some panels and it all seems to be 5.5mm now. MDF at 6mm no problem. So when did ply become 5.5mm or was it always so and I never realised?

Related - anyone know of a good source of oak veneered 6mm sheets? OR have an opinion on veneered MDF over veneered ply? I must admit I have always tended towards ply but MDF seems to be far more common nowadays. It is only for workshop cabinets and I am trying to decide whether to go for oak veneered as I have a load of oak I could use to make stiles, or to go painted and just use plain MDF or WBP ply... :eusa-think:
 
Personally for a workshop I’d go for cheap.
I have not bought any for a while but veneered stuff was always a good bit more expensive than plain boards.

Rod
 
Not sure.

In the 60s in the timber yard I worked in, all hardboard (Royalboard) was in loads of imperial sizes at 1/8" thick door sizes, 6x2, 6'6"x2'6", 6'8"x2'8", 7x3, 8x4, 4x2, 4x3 ( I used to hand unload 20 tons of it every Monday morning!)

Birch ply was in metric thicknesses @ 4mm, 6mm, 9mm, 12mm but in imperial widths and lengths - 8x4, 6x4, 50"x60", 60"x50" and 60"x60".

Chipboard and blockboard were in imperial 1/2' and 3/4' by 8x4.
 
I have purchased sheets of oak veneered ply with veneer on one side only which is labelled as 5.5mm. The only material with veneer on both sides seems to be MDF which is 6mm thick. I am happy to use the MDF on inside jobs but have been forced to resort to using twin layers of veneered 4mm ply for panels which may be exposed to moisture.
If you are using router or spindle cutters designed to cut matching moulds and grooves in a single pass, it's sometimes necessary to rebate the inside face of the panels to fit the grooves.
Suppliers seem to prefer to stock MDF with veneer on both faces rather than plywood, it's my opinion that the quality of the veneer on this is better than that on the plywood.
Mike.
 
Thanks all for the range of answers! I was not so much commenting on the switch from imperial to metric however, merely that in my head ply was 6mm but when I went looking online it all appears to be 5.5mm for standard ply (6mm for birch ply and MDF) and I wondered if this was a recent change from 6mm down to 5.5mm or it had always been so?

Stuck at work today, but intend to go hunting for stock over the next few weeks and do a bit of a workshop revamp over the 2 weeks I have off over Christmas (wife and kids permitting!). Nothing like planning early though - half the fun is the anticipation - in my head it all works perfectly: joints are tight, never cut anything wrong, finish goes on flat and consistent, never swear or get cross..... :eusa-whistle:
 
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